Meaning of noli me tangere | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A picture depicting Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene shortly after his resurrection from the dead (see the etymology).
2. A warning to avoid or not to interfere.
3. Someone (such as a disagreeable person) or something (such as a painful experience or taboo topic) to be avoided or not interfered with.
4. Any of various plants with fruits or seed capsules that, when ripe, burst open and discharge their seeds when touched, or with leaves that fold and droop when touched.
5. Some plants of the genus Impatiens; specifically, the touch-me-not balsam or yellow balsam (Impatiens noli-tangere).
6. The squirting cucumber (Ecballium elaterium).
7. The sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica), the leaves of which fold inwards and droop when shaken or touched.
   archaic
8. Any of various diseases causing ulcers of the skin and underlying tissues, especially of the face; many of these diseases are now thought to be due to basal cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma.
   obsolete

Equivalents

Examples

“In the rest of the private lodgings contiguous to this, are divers of the best pictures of the greate masters, Raphael, Titian, &c. and, in my esteeme, above all, the Noli me tangere of our blessed Saviour to Mary Magdalen after his Resurrection, of Hans Holbein [the Younger], than which I never saw so much reverence and kind of heavenly astonishment express'd in a picture.”

“In a compartment over the communion-table is an estimable picture; a noli me tangere, by [Anton Raphael] Mengs, who painted it at Rome, and parted with it to the college for three hundred guineas.”

“Half of the other pictures are Magdalens, Flights into Egypt, Crucifixions, Depositions from the Cross, Pietas, Noli-me-tangeres, or the Sacrifice of Abraham, or martyrdoms of saints, originally painted as altar-pieces, or for the shrines of chapels, and wofully lacking the accompaniments which the artist had in view.”

“He studied a tapestry on one wall of a noli me tangere wrought by a craftsman whose signature was illegible.”

“The Porcupine is a ſmall thing not much unlike a Hedgehog; ſomething bigger, vvho ſtands upon his guard and proclaimes a Noli me tangere, to man and beaſt, that ſhall approach too neare him, darting his quills into their legges, and hides.”

“These difficulties, that are in Scripture, which indeed are not a few,—are not a ‘noli me tangere,’ to drive us from the study of the Scriptures, as the inference would be made,—but they are of another kind of aim and tendency.”

“Then for your eating-accommodations;—dinner dressed by the housemaid, with extempore spits, saucepans, &c. en attendant the arrival of the bonâ fide cook, and her apparatus—every dish, as it is brought in, carrying a "noli me tangere" on the face of it, […]”

“I used to think that I was a good deal of an author in amour propre and noli me tangere; but these prose fellows are worst, after all, about their little comforts.”

“[T]he children of bishops carry about with them an austere and repulsive air, indicative of claims not generally acknowledged, a sort of noli me tangere manner, nervously apprehensive of too familiar approach, and shrinking with the sensitiveness of a gouty man, from all contact with the οἱ πολλοι [hoi polloi].”

“He was a proud man, […] showing his pride chiefly by a certain impalpable noli me tangere, which just sufficed to make itself felt and obeyed at the first approach of any personal freedom.”

“On the 25th of May, 1614, the Bishop of Lincoln [Richard Neile] having, in the House of Lords, dissuaded the Lords from agreeing to a conference with the Commons on the subject of impositions, and used this expression, "That the matter of imposition is a Noli me tangere; and that it did not strike at a branch, but at the root and prerogative of the imperial crown;" the House of Commons, after a long and violent debate, […] determine to forbear all proceedings in any parliamentary matter, till they have received an answer from the Lords on this subject.”

“Religion was only the Pretence;—but Monopoly the Noli me tangere, and the real Cauſe of the Clamours.—[…]”

“Publish'd he would have them (according to the erratas of his life) in folio: but so indigested are his collections, and so illaborate his style, as the stationer shunnes them, like a noli me tangere, fearing their sale.”

“There was also Mr. Wormwood, the noli-me-tangere of literary lions—an author who sowed his conversation not with flowers but thorns.”

“I think active cases of lupus are better let alone, they are noli me tangeres.”

“There is another plant vvhich hath beene account of ſome to be a kinde of blacke Hellebor, vvhoſe figure vve haue ſet foorth for one of the Arſmarts, called of ſome Impatiens Herba, and others Noli me tangere, […]”

“Novv ſow the vvild ſpirting Cucumber, and the Noli me tangere in the natural Ground; they are diverting Plants vvhen their Fruit is full ripe.”

“Noli me tangere, in Engliſh, Touch me not: Is indifferently uſed to any Plant vvhoſe Leaves or Seed vvill ſtart avvay by touching them; ſo the Humble and Senſible Plants may be call'd, becauſe their Leaves contract themſelves by touching them; the ſpirting Cucumber is another ſo call'd, becauſe the Fruit flies in ones Face vvhen vve attempt to gather it: VVe have alſo ſome of the Balſamines, vvhoſe Seedpods vvhen they are ripe, vvill immediately fly avvay upon the Touch.”

“There are only tvvo ſpecies of this genera uſually cultivated in the Engliſh gardens, both annuals; one is the Noli me tangere, or Touch-me-not, eſteemed more for the ſingularity of it's elaſtic capſules than beauty of its flovvers […]”

“This ſpecies [Momordica elaterium, now Ecballium elaterium] is one of the Noli me tangere, or Touch-me-not kinds, for upon handling the ripe fruit, it inſtantly burſts with elaſtic violence, and diſcharge its juice and ſeeds with amazing force all around to a great diſtance, often cauſing conſternation to ſtrangers vvho happen to touch them.”

“The ſame Maiſter [Jean] Nicot, hauing caused the ſaid hearb [tobacco] to be ſet in his Garden, where it grewe and multiplied maruellouſly, was vppon a time aduertiſed, by one of his Pages, that a young man, of kinne to that Page made a ſaye of that hearbe bruſed both the hearbe and the Juice together vppon an vlcer, which he had vpon his cheeke neere vnto his noſe, comming of a Noli me tangere, which began to take roote already at the griſtles of the Noſe, wherewith hee founde himſelfe meruellouſly eaſed. Therefore the ſayde Maister Nicot cauſed the ſicke young man to bee brought before him, and cauſing the ſaide hearb to be continued to the ſore eight or ten daies, this ſaide Noli me tangere, was vtterly extinguiſhed and healed: […]”

“After the ſame manner Ariſtolochia together with Cyperus, healeth the ſtinking and illfavored ulcer of the noſe, called Noli-me-tangere.”

“Other things we feel hurt us, we forbear easily. An angry inflammation there is, the name of it is a noli mi tangere; and not that only, but any boil or sore endures not the touching. What? had Christ any sore place about Him, since His Passion? No; for St. Thomas put his finger, nay, his whole hand into the place of His wounds, and put Him to no pain at all. No place in Christ, for this noli me tangere neither.”

“This precious aunt of yours is become inſenſibly a part of my conſtitution—Damn her! She's a noli me tangere in my fleſh, vvhich I cannot bear to be touched or tampered with.”

CEFR level