afraid of touching vs afraid to touch

Both "afraid of touching" and "afraid to touch" are correct, but they are used in slightly different contexts. "Afraid of touching" is used when the fear is related to the action of touching itself, while "afraid to touch" is used when the fear is related to the consequences or outcomes of touching.

Last updated: March 30, 2024 • 1285 views

afraid of touching

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English.

This phrase is used when the fear is related to the action of touching itself. It indicates a fear or aversion towards the act of physically making contact with something or someone.

Examples:

She is afraid of touching spiders.
He is afraid of touching the hot stove.
The child is afraid of touching the snake.
I am afraid of touching raw meat.
They are afraid of touching the unknown object.

Show examples from the web [+]

'Cause he's a physician, he's not afraid of touching sick guys.
You were afraid of women touching you.
Afraid of me touching the kid?
Great combination of touching sentiment and TMI.
I liked the feeling of touching animals best.
I want to pioneer the art of touching.
I want to work with you to pioneer the art of touching.
I couldn't bear the idea of touching his hand.
It's a completely different way of touching.
But there was a lot of touching.
I would never dream of touching your family.
I did not like Varinius of touching it.
We'll find the right level of touching.
That's not the kind of touching I meant.
He's got curly grey hair, wouldn't dream of touching it up.
But he can't bear to pass me in the hallway for fear of touching me.
I don't have any memories of touching my dad's hand, or what my mom smells like.
Study instead of touching people's humps!
After thinking about it I realized that the art of touching is really quite an interesting concept.
It felt like everyone who ever made the mistake of touching Ali was there that night.

Alternatives:

scared of touching
fearful of touching
terrified of touching

afraid to touch

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English.

This phrase is used when the fear is related to the consequences or outcomes of touching. It indicates a fear or reluctance to physically make contact with something or someone due to the potential negative results.

Examples:

She is afraid to touch the spider in case it bites her.
He is afraid to touch the hot stove because it might burn him.
The child is afraid to touch the snake out of fear of being bitten.
I am afraid to touch raw meat because of contamination.
They are afraid to touch the unknown object for fear of what it might be.

Show examples from the web [+]

I was afraid to touch the death seen in her.
I'm still afraid to touch anybody.
I'm afraid to touch anything.
We don't want them to be afraid to touch the goods.
She cries so much, she's afraid to touch her Kids.
Don't be afraid to touch a star
Skip's been at home in hiding ever since, Afraid to touch anyone.
And now, I'm afraid to touch another woman.
I should be afraid to touch anything'.
I'm afraid to touch anything, but it's beautiful.
Danara, I was never afraid to touch you.
You're afraid to touch me, and it's all my fault.
His whole system's so complicated, I'm afraid to touch it myself.
After what happened to Floyd, I'm afraid to touch it, except to turn it over to somebody else.
Don't be afraid to touch it and become one with it!
Stand closer, what, you are afraid to touch me?
are you afraid to touch it?
I'm afraid to touch him.
If we had the OgIa and the ReIora as our allies, the others would be afraid to touch us.

Alternatives:

scared to touch
reluctant to touch
hesitant to touch

What Our Customers Are Saying

Our customers love us! We have an average rating of 4.79 stars based on 283,125 votes.
Also check out our 2,100+ reviews on TrustPilot (4.9).

"Thank you!"
Sachi Nakama July 2024
"I have literally been through chat, PI, claude, bard and bing and I got conflicting answers! Thank you! Human intelligence reigns!"
Retha July 2024
"Faster than AI"
CYNTHIA December 2023
"This was very helpful and I personally think this site is the best."
Kaden October 2023
"It was extremely thorough and very helpful!"
imperialelisa October 2023
"7 years without any disappointment. Always 100% satisfied. You guys are the best in the world at what you do. Thank you so much :)"
Zubair Alam October 2023
"In a world of text messages and online communication, this is great to have as a live tool. Thank you."
Selena October 2023
"Without textranch I would be stuck!"
宏祐 October 2023
"Accuracy and fast response. Personal comments from editor. Thank you."
Clh September 2023
"I wasn't aware of this service, it's fascinating and more reliable than standard IA tools available on the internet"
Arturo September 2023
"The fact that you can get reliable fast feedback on your texts."
Vinicius Antonio August 2023
"you guys are better than grammarly i'm being honest here"
ordinary July 2023
"OMG! This is really good than any other text correction tools I've used so far. Highly recommend this."
Vehan July 2023
"Very fast and accurate. thank you."
mojtaba July 2023
"I love this app because it's help to writing skills all of students ♥️"
Tarisini July 2023
"This was exactly the mistake I was looking for, the wording dind´t sound right at first. Better than grammarly!"
Ente July 2023
"The immediate help that I received was reassuring and very satisfactory. Thanks."
priiiyanshuu July 2023
"this helps A LOT for my studies."
kathnunez02 June 2023
"Woow!! I would never have expected such precision! Thank you soooo much!!"
Berta June 2023
"Real Time Editor and not AI. Many Thanks."
Priya June 2023
"The very first thing excites me about Textranch is how much your editors care."
sepideh June 2023
"The fact that texts are checked by human editors rather than by AI, etc. I appreciate this!"
Анна June 2023
"Feel welcome, immediate response, high quality feedback"
martin.roy June 2023
"This is the best app that I have ever seen"
Burulai May 2023

afraid of touching vs afraid to touch