tout









tout


verb (used without object)

  1. to solicit business, employment, votes, or the like, importunately.
  2. Horse Racing. to act as a tout.

verb (used with object)

  1. to solicit support for importunately.
  2. to describe or advertise boastfully; publicize or promote; praise extravagantly: a highly touted nightclub.
  3. Horse Racing.
    1. to provide information on (a horse) running in a particular race, especially for a fee.
    2. to spy on (a horse in training) in order to gain information for the purpose of betting.
  4. to watch; spy on.

noun

  1. a person who solicits business, employment, support, or the like, importunately.
  2. Horse Racing.
    1. a person who gives information on a horse, especially for a fee.
    2. Chiefly British.a person who spies on a horse in training for the purpose of betting.
  3. British. a ticket scalper.

verb

  1. to solicit (business, customers, etc) or hawk (merchandise), esp in a brazen way
  2. (intr)
    1. to spy on racehorses being trained in order to obtain information for betting purposes
    2. to sell, or attempt to sell, such information or to take bets, esp in public places
  3. (tr) informal to recommend flatteringly or excessively

noun

    1. a person who spies on racehorses so as to obtain betting information to sell
    2. a person who sells information obtained by such spying
  1. a person who solicits business in a brazen way
  2. Also called: ticket tout a person who sells tickets unofficially for a heavily booked sporting event, concert, etc, at greatly inflated prices
  3. Ulster a police informer
v.

1700, thieves’ cant, “to act as a lookout, spy on,” from Middle English tuten “to peep, peer,” probably from a variant of Old English totian “to stick out, peep, peer,” from Proto-Germanic *tut- “project” (cf. Dutch tuit “sprout, snout,” Middle Dutch tute “nipple, pap,” Middle Low German tute “horn, funnel,” Old Norse tota “teat, toe of a shoe”). The sense developed to “look out for jobs, votes, etc., to try to get them” (1731), then “praise highly” (1920). Related: Touted; touting.

55 queries 0.678