tout
/taʊt/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Canada/tʌʊt/
tout noun: someone advertising for customers in an aggressive way.
Noun (1)
tout (plural touts)
- Someone advertising for customers in an aggressive way.
- Be careful of the ticket touts outside the arena; they are famed for selling counterfeits.
- Paul Muniment looked at his young friend a moment. 'Do you want to know what he is? He's a tout.'
'A tout? What do you mean?'
'Well, a cat's-paw, if you like better.'1886, Henry James, The Princess Casamassima, London: Macmillan and Co.
- A person at a racecourse who offers supposedly inside information on which horse is likely to win.
- No one, however, would have anything to do with him, as Mr. Keeson's orders in those respects were very strict ; he had often threatened any one of his employés with instant dismissal if he found him in company with one of these touts.1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Hocussing of Cigarette”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London...
- An informer in the Irish Republican Army.
- The Derry Brigade of the IRA thought it had got rid of its informer problem when earlier that year it executed Paddy Flood as a tout, after holding him for six weeks.2011, Hugh Jordan, Milestones in Murder: Defining Moments in Ulster's Terror War
- A spy for a smuggler, thief, or the like.
Verb
tout (third-person singular simple present touts, present participle touting, simple past and past participle touted)
- To flaunt, to publicize/publicise; to boast or brag about; to promote.
- Mary has been touted as a potential successor to the current CEO.
- China has touted its policy of non-interference for decades.2016 January 25, “Why Arabs would regret a toothless Chinese dragon”, in The National, retrieved 25 Jan 2016
- To spy out information about (a horse, a racing stable, etc.).
- To give a tip on (a racehorse) to a person, with the expectation of sharing in any winnings.
- To spy out the movements of racehorses at their trials, or to get by stealth or other improper means the secrets of the stable, for betting purposes.
- To act as a tout; to give a tip on a racehorse.
- To look for, try to obtain; used with for.
- To understand the new London, I lived it. I slept rough with Roma beggars and touted for work with Baltic laborers on the kerb.March 1, 2016, Ben Judah on BBC Business Daily
- To look upon or watch.
- Nor durst Orcanes view the Soldan's face, / But still upon the floor did pore and tout.1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, X, lvi
Noun (2)
tout
tout meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
tout in Hindi
- टोउट
tout in Tamil
- குதிரைப்பந்தய வெற்றிக் குறிப்பு தருபவர், தரகரின் ஒருவகை, தரகர், வாடிக்கையாளரைப் பிடிப்பவர்
tout in Marathi
- टाउट
tout in Urdu
- مخبر, پٹھو, بیوپار حاصل کرنا, حمایت حاصل کرنا, جھوٹی تعریف کرنا, مخبری کرنا
More languagesFewer languages
- tout in Bengali
- টাউট ṭauṭ
- tout in Telugu
- టౌట్
- tout in Malayalam
- കക്ഷികളെ പിടിക്കുന്നവൻ, ഗുപ്തനിരീക്ഷകൻ, ഏജന്റ്, ദല്ലാൾ
- tout in Kannada
- ಟೌಟ್
- tout in Gujarati
- ટોઉટ, ટોઇટ કરવા માટે
- tout in Odia
- ଟଟ୍ କରିବା ପାଇଁ
- tout in Nepali
- टोउट
- tout in Indonesian
- calo, menawari, menawarkan, membujuk
- tout in Vietnamese
- công bố
Examples of tout in a sentence
- If you want to catch the bus, you'd better leave tout de suite!
- Let’s get back to my place tout de suite and crack it open.
- That landmark has been touted by Chinese state media as a major accomplishment.
Synonyms of tout
Forms of tout
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | touts |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | touts |
| present participle | touting |
| past participle | touted |
| past | touted |
Origin of tout
From Middle English touten (“to jut out, protrude, gaze upon, observe, peer”), from Old English *tūtian (“to be sticking out, protrude”), related to Old English tȳtan (“to stand out, be conspicuous, shine”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *tut(t)- (“to stick out, project”). Compare Icelandic túta (“a teat-like prominence”), tútna (“to be blown up”). Possibly influenced by dialectal toot (“to stick out; project; peer out; peep”), from Middle English toten, totien, from Old English tōtian (“to peep out; look; pry; spectate”). Compare also Old English tot, ġetot (“pomp, splendour, vainglory”).
Probably from French tout (“all”).
Words formed from tout
Phrases with tout
Words that rhyme with tout
42 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- shout
- sprout
- doubt
- umlaut
- fill out
- grout
- pout
- devout
- drought
- gout
- nowt
- redoubt
- throughout
- without
- ablaut
- dout
- flout
- lout
- mahout
- misdoubt
- mought
- prone out
- strout
- term out
- trout
- zoom out
- 'bout
- anlaut
- aspout
- asprout
- bluff out
- chout
- dought
- knout
- kraut
- layabout
- ne'er cast a clout till May be out
- owt
- peter out
- regrout
- sout
- when in doubt, do nowt
Questions about tout
- What does tout mean?
- Tout means someone advertising for customers in an aggressive way.
- What is tout in Hindi?
- Tout in Hindi is टोउट. See Tout meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is tout?
- Tout can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce tout?
- Tout is pronounced /taʊt/.
- What is the plural of tout?
- The plural of tout is touts.
Words near tout in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tout (page history and authors); tout (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tout (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tout (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tout (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tout (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tout (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tout (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tout (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tout (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); tout (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-tout.ogg, en-au-tout.ogg.
Cite this entry: “tout.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tout. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.