tout
- to solicit business, employment, votes, or the like, importunately.
- Horse Racing. to act as a tout.
- to solicit support for importunately.
- to describe or advertise boastfully; publicize or promote; praise extravagantly: a highly touted nightclub.
- Horse Racing.
- to provide information on (a horse) running in a particular race, especially for a fee.
- to spy on (a horse in training) in order to gain information for the purpose of betting.
- to watch; spy on.
- a person who solicits business, employment, support, or the like, importunately.
- Horse Racing.
- a person who gives information on a horse, especially for a fee.
- Chiefly British.a person who spies on a horse in training for the purpose of betting.
- British. a ticket scalper.
Origin of tout
Related Words for tout
laud, proclaim, praise, publicize, promote, trumpet, plug, acclaim, ballyhoo, tip, herald, push, boost, steerExamples from the Web for tout
Contemporary Examples of tout
The audience--tout Hollywood--stands to cheer his slow and painful trek from the wings to the table.
A liberal group supporting Hillary Clinton tries to tout her pro-middle class bonafides.
But every few years a news article will tout the increased popularity of rabbit as an American dinner item.
That big brain we so tout today was shaped by the mammoths we hunted, by the great cats and bears that sometimes stalked us.
They tout engaging plot lines, sharp illustrations and alluring wines that capture immediate attention.
Historical Examples of tout
"And the jock'll have to stand the shot; I know how it goes," asserted the Tout.
ThoroughbredsW. A. Fraser
The Zouaves then made a dash for the ravine on the Tout Vent front.
A tout is guessing all the time, but a hustler is likely to know something.
Old Man CurryCharles E. (Charles Emmett) Van Loan
"'Major,' tout court, if you please," Mr. Colt corrected him.
Brother CopasSir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
It is the tout ensemble of her presence and her personal charm.
Princess ZaraRoss Beeckman
tout
- to solicit (business, customers, etc) or hawk (merchandise), esp in a brazen way
- (intr)
- to spy on racehorses being trained in order to obtain information for betting purposes
- to sell, or attempt to sell, such information or to take bets, esp in public places
- (tr) informal to recommend flatteringly or excessively
- a person who spies on racehorses so as to obtain betting information to sell
- a person who sells information obtained by such spying
- a person who solicits business in a brazen way
- Also called: ticket tout a person who sells tickets unofficially for a heavily booked sporting event, concert, etc, at greatly inflated prices
- Ulster a police informer
Word Origin for tout
Word Origin and History for tout
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.