retouch definition | Dictionary.com

2.	Photography. to alter (a negative or positive) after development by adding or removing lines, lightening areas, etc., with a pencil, brush, or knife.

3.	to dye, tint, or bleach (a new growth of hair) to match or blend with the color of an earlier and previously dyed growth.

–noun

4.	an added touch to a picture, painting, paint job, etc., by way of improvement or alteration.

5.	an act or instance of dyeing new growth of hair to blend with previously dyed hair.

Origin:
1675–85; < MF retoucher, equiv. to re- re- + toucher to touch

Related forms:

re⋅touch⋅a⋅ble, adjective

re⋅touch⋅er, noun

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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re·touch (rē-tŭch')

v. re·touched, re·touch·ing, re·touch·es

v. tr.

To add new details or touches to for correction or improvement.
To improve or change (a photographic negative or print), as by adding details or removing flaws.
To color (recent growth of hair) to match hair that was tinted, dyed, or bleached at an earlier date.
Archaeology To modify (a flaked stone tool) by secondary flaking along the cutting edge.

v. intr.
To give or make retouches.
n. (rē'tŭch', rē-tŭch')
The act, process, or an instance of retouching.
re·touch'er n.

Retouch

Re*touch"\, v. t. [Pref. re- + touch: cf. F. retoucher.]

1. To touch again, or rework, in order to improve; to revise; as, to retouch a picture or an essay.

2. (Photog.) To correct or change, as a negative, by handwork.

Retouch

Re*touch"\, n. (Fine Arts) A partial reworking,as of a painting, a sculptor's clay model, or the like.

retouch

1650, from Fr. retoucher (13c.) "to touch again" (with a view to improving)," from re- "again" + toucher (see touch).

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