two-hand touch
- noun
- US
- It's two-hand touch.
Examples
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We playing tackle football, two hand touch football, imaginary football, me against, you know, the Dallas Cowboys, it's Pittsburgh Steelers.
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Why don't we have a friendly game of two-hand touch?
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- That's two-hand touch.
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We enjoyed a friendly match of two-hand touch football in the park yesterday.
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In our gym class, we often play two-hand touch instead of regular football to avoid injuries.
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During recess, the kids love to play two-hand touch, where they must tag each other to stop the play.
How Physical
- US
- US
Surface Forms
Morphology
two-hand + touch
The sense 'a variant of touch football requiring contact with both hands' is directly and compositionally derived from the parts: 'two-hand' (two hands) + 'touch' (physical contact). This is a literal, productively built sports term following common compounding patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Two-hand touch gets its name from the simple rule that a player is 'tackled' when an opponent touches them with two hands. That clear image of placing two hands on a runner explains why the phrase means the safer version of football where touching, not full tackles, ends a play.