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tout

(tout)

v. tout·ed, tout·ing, touts

v.tr.

1. To promote or praise energetically; publicize: "For every study touting the benefits of hormone therapy, another warns of the risks" (Yanick Rice Lamb).

2. To solicit or importune: street vendors who were touting pedestrians.

3. Chiefly British To obtain or sell information on (a racehorse or stable) for the guidance of bettors.

v.intr.

1. To solicit customers, votes, or patronage, especially in a brazen way.

2. Chiefly British To obtain and deal in information on racehorses.

1. One who solicits customers brazenly or persistently: "The administration of the nation's literary affairs falls naturally into the hands of touts and thieves" (Lewis H. Lapham).

2. Chiefly British One who obtains information on racehorses and their prospects and sells it to bettors.

3. Chiefly Scots and Irish Slang One who informs against others; an informer.

[Early Modern English, to be on the lookout for (customers, information, etc.), from Middle English tuten, to peer; akin to Old English tōtian, to protrude, peep out.]

touter n.

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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