touch-me-not Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun North American annual plant with usually yellow or orange flowers; grows chiefly on wet rather acid soil
    celandine; lady's earrings; orange balsam; jewelweed; Impatiens capensis.
  2. noun Mediterranean vine having oblong fruit that when ripe expels its seeds and juice violently when touched
    Ecballium elaterium; squirting cucumber; exploding cucumber.
  3. noun prostrate or semi-erect subshrub of tropical America, and Australia; heavily armed with recurved thorns and having sensitive soft grey-green leaflets that fold and droop at night or when touched or cooled
    live-and-die; sensitive plant; action plant; Mimosa pudica; humble plant; shame plant.

WordNet

Touch"-me-not` noun
Definitions
  1. (Bot.) (a) See Impatiens. (b) Squirting cucumber. See under Cucumber.

Webster 1913