Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a very tight fit, an instance of very close contact.

1828

Craven Gloss. 215: An exact fit. ‘It hits to a toucher’, i.e. so exactly that the joints touch each other .

2. a blow.

1831

‘Gallery of 140 Comicalities’ Bell’s Life in London 24 June 1/4: My eye! what a toucher!

3. a near thing, usu. in phr. near as a toucher.

1826		British Press 20 Sept. 3/4: It was to near as a toucher a dead heat between Jack Spigot and Barrataria, the latter being third by only half a head.
1827		W. Clarke Every Night Bk 73: The cock which takes your fancy [...] is to [...] all appearance, right-thorough bred, or ‘as near it as a toucher’ .
1848		Era (London) 6/36/3: Catch weight was the stipulation, each lad being about l0 st, as near as a toucher.
1853		Dickens Bleak House (1991) 83: There we are in four minutes time, as near as a toucher.
1867		R. Whiteing Mr Sprouts, His Opinions 1: It was jest about harf past seven as near as a toucher.
1873		J. Greenwood In Strange Company 7: Ginger opines that, as ‘nigh as a toucher, he was eight last birthday.’.
1875		Wagga Wagga Advertiser 23 Oct. 4/2: They say he was as near as a toucher succeeding.
1895		W. Pett Ridge Minor Dialogues 90: inspector: (to Guard). What do you make it, James? guard: Nigh as a toucher, sir.
1919		Wodehouse ‘Jeeves and the Hard-Boiled Egg’ in My Man Jeeves [ebook] I near as a toucher put on a white tie with a dinner jacket.
1922		Wodehouse Clicking of Cuthbert 4: He did the short eleventh in one, and as near as a toucher got a three on the four-hundred-yard twelfth.
1940		Wodehouse Eggs, Beans & Crumpets ((1951)) 10: There was within a toucher of being very serious trouble.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 58: I was within the merest toucher of saying Yes, so she had told me, which would, of course, have been fatal.
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 135: This causing Kipper to come within a toucher of losing his nerve and calling the whole thing off.

4. (US black/drugs) one who becomes physically affectionate after smoking crack cocaine [note non-toucher n.].

1992		T. Williams Crackhouse 152: toucher user of crack-cocaine-freebase who seeks affection before, during, or after smoking.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 21: Toucher — User of crack who wants affection before, during, or after smoking crack.