toots

American  

[toots] / tʊts /

noun

Slang.

1. an affectionate or familiar term of address; honey; baby (sometimes offensive when used to strangers, casual acquaintances, subordinates, etc., especially by a male to a female).

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toots British  

/ tʊts /

noun

1. informal darling; sweetheart

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Etymology

Origin of toots

First recorded in 1940–45; toot(sie) ¹ + -s ⁴

Example Sentences

On Monday afternoon, sporadic vuvuzela toots and car horns could still be heard downtown, although unclear whether a holdover from the prior night's celebrations or in anticipation of the team's forthcoming arrival.

From Barron's

City Hall, which dates to the 16th century, toots out a cheerful jazz bugle call several times a day.

From The Wall Street Journal

The conductor would signal the engineer that passengers needed to disembark, and the engineer “would respond with two toots of the whistle,” he writes.

From Seattle Times

The new field of digital bioacoustics is machine learning to try decipher animal speak, including honeybee toots and quacks and woops.

From Scientific American

From the calls of merry market traders to the toots of check-out tills, there are many visuals and sounds that make up a high street in England.

From BBC

Related Words

• honk