tout

From a dialectal form of toot (“to stick out; project; peer out; peep”), itself from Middle English toten, from Old English tōtian (“to peep out; look; pry; spectate”).

• IPA^(key): /taʊt/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /tʌʊt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -aʊt

tout (plural touts)

1. Someone advertising for customers in an aggressive way.
   • 1886, Henry James, The Princess Casamassima.

     Paul Muniment looked at his young friend a moment. 'Do you want to know what he is? He's a tout.'

     'A tout? What do you mean?'

     'Well, a cat's-paw, if you like better.'

     Hyacinth stared. 'For whom, pray?'

     'Or a fisherman, if you like better still. I give you your choice of comparisons. I made them up as we came along in the hansom. He throws his nets and hauls in the little fishes—the pretty little shining, wriggling fishes. They are all for her; she swallows, 'em down.'

2. A person, at a racecourse, who offers supposedly inside information on which horse is likely to win.
   • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, in The Hocussing of Cigarette‎:

     No one, however, would have anything to do with him, as Mr. Keeson's orders in those respects were very strict ; he had often threatened any one of his employés with instant dismissal if he found him in company with one of these touts.

3. (colloquial, archaic) A spy for a smuggler, thief, or similar.

• (one advertising aggressively for customers): barker, pitchman, spruiker

• ticket tout

tout (third-person singular simple present touts, present participle touting, simple past and past participle touted)

1. (transitive) To flaunt, to publicize/publicise; to boast or brag; to promote.
   • 2016 January 25, "Why Arabs would regret a toothless Chinese dragon," The National (retrieved 25 January 2016):

     China has touted its policy of non-interference for decades.

   • 2012, Scott Tobias, The Hunger Games, The A.V. Club

     For the 75 years since a district rebellion was put down, The Games have existed as an assertion of the Capital’s power, a winner-take-all contest that touts heroism and sacrifice—participants are called “tributes”— while pitting the districts against each other.

2. (obsolete) To look upon or watch.
   • 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, X, lvi:

     Nor durst Orcanes view the Soldan's face, / But still upon the floor did pore and tout.

3. (Britain, slang, horse-racing, transitive) To spy out information about (a horse, a racing stable, etc.).
4. (US, slang, horse-racing, transitive) To give a tip on (a racehorse) to a person, with the expectation of sharing in any winnings.
5. (Britain, slang, horse-racing, intransitive) To spy out the movements of racehorses at their trials, or to get by stealth or other improper means the secrets of the stable, for betting purposes.
6. (US, slang, horse-racing, intransitive) To act as a tout; to give a tip on a racehorse.
7. (intransitive) To look for, try to obtain; used with for.

   To understand the new London, I lived it. I slept rough with Roma beggars and touted for work with Baltic laborers on the kerb. (Ben Judah on BBC Business Daily, March 1, 2016)

• pimp
• pitch
• promote
• spruik

Probably from French tout (“all”).

tout

1. (card games) In the game of solo, a proposal to win all eight tricks.

• tout court

From Middle French tout, from Old French tot, from Latin tōtus; compare Catalan tot, Italian tutto, Portuguese todo, Romanian tot, Spanish todo.

• IPA^(key): /tu/

• audio

  (file)

tout (feminine singular toute, masculine plural tous, feminine plural toutes)

1. all

tout (plural tous)

1. everything

tout

1. all

• “tout” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

From French tout (“all”).

tout

1. all

tout

1. all

From Old French tot.

tout m (feminine singular toute, masculine plural tous, feminine plural toutes)

1. all; all of

   toute la nuit

   all (of the) night

tout (feminine singular toute, masculine plural tous, feminine plural toutes)

1. all (intensifier)
   • 1488, Jean Dupré, Lancelot du Lac, page 45:

     Et moult y avoit de gens tout autour pour regarder la iustice de la damoiselle

     And there were many people all around to watch the justice afforded to the lady

2. completely; totally; entirely

• Like French tout, when used as an intensifier it may inflect according to the gender and the number of what it is describing:

  Elle est toute morte ― she is completely dead

• The uninflected form tout is always used for describing terms that don't inflect with gender, such as verbs, adverbs and prepositions:

  y avoit de gens tout autour ― there were people all around

  (tout qualifies the preposition autour)

• French: tout

From Old French tot, from Latin tōtus.

• Audio (Jersey)

  (file)

tout m

1. (Jersey, Guernsey) all

tout

1. (Jersey, Guernsey) all

tout

1. (intransitive) To pout.

tout (plural touts)

1. A fit of sulking; a pet.
2. A sudden illness.

• toutie