touch sth off
— phrasal verb with touch uk/tʌtʃ/us/tʌtʃ/verb
to cause a violent or difficult series of events to suddenly begin:
The plans for a new airport have touched off a storm of protest.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Starting and beginning
- be in the first flush of idiom
- become
- begin
- branch out
- break into sth
- export
- go ahead
- ground
- incipient
- initiator
- instate
- introduce
- kick
- kick-start
- strike
- swing into action idiom
- train
- trigger
- wade in
- weave
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