adv. (colloquial).—Slightly crazy; mentally impaired. Hence TOUCH, subs. = a kink, a twist: cf. Old Eng. touch = to infect, blemish, taint.
1704. STEELE, The Lying Lover, v. 1. Pray mind him not, his brain is TOUCH’D. Ibid. (1710), The Tatler, No. 178, 30 May. This TOUCH in the brain of the British subject, is as certainly owing to the reading news-papers.
1705. VANBRUGH, The Confederacy, v. 2. Madam, you see master’s a little—TOUCHED, that’s all.
1897. MARSHALL, Pomes, 86. There were some who called her ‘TOUCHED,’ because she told them plump and plain that she wasn’t going to be a fellow’s chattel.
1899. R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, ix. He is not to be judged by their law; he has been ‘TOUCHED.’
