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tout

[tout]Informal.
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verb (used without object)
  1. to solicit business, employment, votes, or the like, importunately.
  2. Horse Racing. to act as a tout.
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verb (used with object)
  1. to solicit support for importunately.
  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.
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noun
  1. a person who solicits business, employment, support, or the like, importunately.
  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.
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Origin of tout

1350–1400; Middle English tuten to look out, peer; probably akin to Old English tōtian to peep out
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

laudproclaimpraisepublicizepromotetrumpetplugacclaimballyhootipheraldpushbooststeer

Examples from the Web for touting

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • Or was he only a purist in conduct who disapproved of Jacobus doing his own touting?

  • I suppose the red-headed mug thinks so too, as she is touting for him.

  • Domini could scarcely believe that so magnificent a creature was touting for a franc.

    The Garden Of Allah

    Robert Hichens

  • "I say I will be touting for no restaurant," I repeated, loudly.

  • What can be got by touting among the critics is never worth the ignominy.

    An Autobiography

    Anthony Trollope

British Dictionary definitions for touting

tout

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. (tr) informal to recommend flatteringly or excessively
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noun
    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. Ulster a police informer
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Derived Formstouter, noun

Word Origin

C14 (in the sense: to peer, look out): related to Old English tӯtan to peep out
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for touting

tout

v.

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.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper