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. (archaic, colloquial) A spy for a smuggler, thief, or the like.

Verb

1. (transitive) To flaunt, to publicize/publicise; to boast or brag about; to promote.
2. (UK, slang, transitive) To spy out information about (a horse, a racing stable, etc.).
3. (US, slang, transitive) To give a tip on (a racehorse) to a person, with the expectation of sharing in any winnings.
4. (UK, intransitive, 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. (US, intransitive, slang) To act as a tout; to give a tip on a racehorse.
6. (intransitive) 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

Translations

racoler

werben

rabatteur

πλασιέ

fanfarronejar

vanter

protzen

prahlen

Drogenvermittler

κατασκοπεύω

ψηφοθηρώ

ψαρεύω πελάτες

bramarbasieren

brüsten

racoleur

Pronounced as (IPA)

/taʊt/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: toten

Inherited from Old English: tōtian

Inherited from Middle English: touten

Inherited from Old English: *tūtian

Cognate with Old English: tȳtan

Cognate with Icelandic: túta

In summary

From Middle English touten (“to jut out, protrude, gaze upon, observe, peer”), from Old English *tūtian (“to be sticking out, protrude”), related to Old English tȳtan (“to stand out, be conspicuous, shine”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *tut(t)- (“to stick out, project”). Compare Icelandic túta (“a teat-like prominence”), tútna (“to be blown up”). Possibly influenced by dialectal toot (“to stick out; project; peer out; peep”), from Middle English toten, totien, from Old English tōtian (“to peep out; look; pry; spectate”). Compare also Old English tot, ġetot (“pomp, splendour, vainglory”).