touch base
Americanverb phrase
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to communicate, make contact, or reconnect, especially quickly or briefly: It’s important to reach out to the client at least twice a year, just to touch base and update the account.
They touched base with every political group on campus during the campaign season.
It’s important to reach out to the client at least twice a year, just to touch base and update the account.
Etymology
Origin of touch base
First recorded in 1875–80 as a baseball term, and in 1915–20 for current sense
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“It’s a lot easier for me to touch base with people who can get them on the phone and say, ‘50 wants to talk to you.’
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 14, 2025
While Whatsapp messages undoubtedly help us touch base and tell people we're thinking of them, she's found them a wholly "unsatisfactory" catch-up replacement during maternity leave.
From BBC • Oct. 12, 2025
“My belief is that it’s OK to touch base as often as it feels comfortable,” she says.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 7, 2023
“Many times people will make the effort to come back and touch base with me or leave a note that they appreciated that it was still here in our community,” Belcher said.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 19, 2023
Unless you’re Aesop or the Brothers Grimm, give these words a vacation. let's touch base.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.