tout

Meaning

Noun

1. Someone advertising for customers in an aggressive way.
2. A person, at a racecourse, who offers supposedly inside information on which horse is likely to win.
3. (colloquial) An informer in the Irish Republican Army.
4. (colloquial) A spy for a smuggler, thief, or similar.

Verb

1. To flaunt, to publicize/publicise; to boast or brag; to promote.
2. (slang) To spy out information about (a horse, a racing stable, etc.).
3. (slang) To give a tip on (a racehorse) to a person, with the expectation of sharing in any winnings.
4. (slang) 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.
5. (slang) To act as a tout; to give a tip on a racehorse.
6. To look for, try to obtain; used with for.
7. (obsolete) To look upon or watch.

Synonyms

boast

shoot a line

advertise

gasconade

barker

blow

gas

bluster

praise

swash

tipster

touter

brag

vaunt

promote

ticket tout

huckster

hymn

laud

pander

pimp

pitchman

plug

publicise

publicize

puff

push

rave

rhapsodize

rodomontade

runner

🏃

scalp

swindler

touting

troll

🧌

apotheose

apotheosise

apotheosize

backslap

cheapjack

ensky

con-man

customer puller

rhapsodise

acclaim

rhodomontade

advertize

applaud

arbitrator

bill

bray

celebrate

clicker

commend

compliment

decoy

eulogize

extol

flatter

glorify

hail

Pronounced as (IPA)

/taʊt/

Etymology

From a dialectal form of toot (“to stick out; project; peer out; peep”), itself from Middle English toten, totien, from Old English tōtian (“to peep out; look; pry; spectate”). Merged with Middle English touten (“to jut out, protrude, gaze upon, observe, peer”), from Old English *tūtian, related to Old English tȳtan (“to stand out, be conspicuous, shine”). Compare Icelandic túta (“a teat-like prominence”), tútna (“to be blown up”).