tout

American  

[taut] / taʊt /

verb (used without object)

• touts,
  present (3rd person singular)
• touted,
  past participle,  past
• touting
  present participle

1. to persistently solicit business, employment, votes, or the like.

2. Horse Racing. to act as a tout.

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verb (used with object)

• touts,
  present (3rd person singular)
• touted,
  past participle,  past
• touting
  present participle

1. to persistently solicit support for.

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

• touts
  plural

1. a person who persistently solicits business, employment, support, or the like.

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.

tout British  

/ taʊt /

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. informal (tr) to recommend flatteringly or excessively

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noun

1. 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

2. a person who solicits business in a brazen way

3. Also called: ticket tout. a person who sells tickets unofficially for a heavily booked sporting event, concert, etc, at greatly inflated prices

4. a police informer

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• touter
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• touts
  plural

Participles

• touting
  present
• touted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• tout
  simple
• touts
  simple
• have touted
  perfect
• has touted
  perfect
• am touting
  progressive
• are touting
  progressive
• is touting
  progressive
• have been touting
  perfect progressive
• has been touting
  perfect progressive

Past

• touted
  simple
• had touted
  perfect
• was touting
  progressive
• were touting
  progressive
• had been touting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will tout
  simple
• will have touted
  perfect
• will be touting
  progressive
• will have been touting
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of tout

First recorded in 1350–1400; from Middle English tuten “to look out, peer”; probably akin to Old English tōtian “to peep out”

Explanation

To tout means to praise, boast, or brag about. If you like to tout your skill as a skier, you tell people you can go down expert-level hills. Sometimes parents will get into bragging wars about their children, each touting the accomplishments of his or her child. Sometimes the word means more of "to claim." The company touted the lotion as a solution to wrinkles. Broccoli has been touted as the cancer-fighting vegetable. In England, a tout is a person who gives advice about gambling. If you're looking to play some money on the ponies, go see the tout who hangs out at Jackie’s bar for a tip.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tout touts touted touting

He used Tuesday's speech to tout his achievements, and claim the mantle of a peacemaker, at the same time as he issued a number of pointed threats.

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026

Not to tout major corporations too much, but it is heartening to see that even businesses worth billions of dollars have their customer in mind, too.

From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2026

Some critics think apocalyptic language amounts to a sick form of marketing from A.I. insiders who want to tout their models’ power to investors.

From Slate ● Sep. 9, 2026

While some AI startups tout their lean team sizes, data suggests that, overall, AI companies are leading a hiring acceleration.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

I’m always amused by commercials for banks which tout their personalized service, which service amounts to a poorly trained and badly paid cashier saying “Good morning” and then promptly fouling up your transaction.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos

The brand touts its simple ingredients, targeting busy consumers who want to serve up healthier food in minutes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026

Offering an apparent window into the company’s marketing strategy, ZRON’s slide deck touts a tool that allegedly allows users to monitor screens, log keystrokes and execute commands on computers running the Windows operating system.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026

Scholarship Prep South Bay, a Wilmington charter school, touts a rare benchmark of success.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026

As part of an ongoing campaign to stop touts, anyone wanting to attend Glastonbury had to be registered in advance.

From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026

The medieval aspect is not destroyed by buildings outside the walls, and the medieval atmosphere is undisturbed by hotel touts and postcard vendors.

From Riviera Towns by Herbert Adams Gibbons

At the event, Microsoft touted its Surface laptop, which runs on Nvidia systems and shows how the company is seeking to capitalize on AI beyond just software and the cloud.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026

There isn’t a common link among the dozens of cases the Justice Department has touted, and court records don’t show an organized effort to commit fraud.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

Open-weight models are also touted as more secure, a growing concern after several incidents of AI agents going rogue by hacking databases or otherwise doing things they were not supposed to do.

From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026

He also touted his efforts in helping keep a budget balanced as Cerritos’ mayor and a city council member.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

Citra found herself getting increasingly anxious after lunch, as the weapons manufacturers touted their wares and various motions were hotly debated.

From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman

American responded to one of Musk’s posts touting its own status match.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

This would all be pretty underwhelming were it not for the ticketing issues instigated by the club's touting crackdown that has annoyed so many in the fanbase.

From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026

With fashion icons increasingly touting their thrift finds on social media and industry events, old-fashioned has become fashionable.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026

Marvell Technology’s custom chips and connectivity offerings have made it a major beneficiary of the data-center build-out — so much so that one analyst is touting the company as a paragon of “accelerating multiengine growth.”

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 11, 2026

In fact, the “bloodbath” school of criminology was touting exactly the opposite theory—that an increase in the teenage share of the population would produce a crop of superpredators who would lay the nation low.

From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt

Related Words

• laud
• praise
• proclaim
• promote
• publicize
• trumpet