Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a thief’s lookout; thus strong tout, a very observant eye.

1718		implied in pushing tout
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 275: A strong tout, is a strict observation, or eye, upon any proceedings, or person.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 61: Send I may live, if Billy arnt one of the cleanest wipe drawers as is, and a hout and hout tout for a pall or a mot.
1858		Morn. Chron. (London) 8 Oct. 7/2: The knot of low gamblers, with the usual thimble-riggery arrangements of costumed ‘touts’ and ‘bonnets’.
1860		Cork Examiner 18 Jan. 4/6: Ben Dizzy [...] and Jack Quaker, well-known touts and ‘bonnets’ in the Mock-Auction business.
1919		C. Williams A Master of Crime 51: He had just received a letter from a ‘tout’ [...] telling him of a likely place where gold could be secured. [...] If the proceeds are good, the ‘tout’ receives part of the swag for information given.

2. a ‘lookout house’ (Grose 1785).

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1873		Sl. Dict.

3. the act of spying or surveying.

1812		implied in keep (the) tout
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 60: Nummy Ned goes on tout to the gardens, pipes a swell, stalls round him, fam’s him, touches the rumbo.
1908		Truth (Brisbane) 12 Apr. 9/3: They has signs and secret slgnals / On there little game of tout / For to give the crook the orfis / If there’s any cops about.

4. a person who sells betting advice, thus the touting fraternity.

1840		Era (London) 20 Dec. 9/1: Having been selected by the touting fraternity, who know everything — that is, in their opinion — to carry off this stake.
1850		‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 23 June 4/4: A fellar as knows nothing about osses — a cross between a tout and a nobbler.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 265/1: Some act also as touters or touts; they are for the most part men, who having been in some capacity or other, connected with racing or with race-horses [...] resort to the selling of race-cards as one means of livelihood, and to touting or watching race-horses, and reporting anything concerning them to those interested, as another means.
1867		J. Greenwood Unsentimental Journeys 179: Perhaps he is a ‘tout,’ or, in other words, a horse spy and a skulker.
1879		‘’Arry on Crutches’ in Punch 3 May 201/1: I suppose if the Toffs took a fancy for chewing a stror or a twig, / Like a tout or a hostler.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 27 May 3/1: It would pay a ‘tout’ to give tips for a bonus as to the condition of the stud horse.
1886		Morn. Post 10 May 2/6: The welsher, the gipsy, the tout, and the cheap-jack roost in this rookery.
1893		Sporting Times 7 Jan. 1/5: Explain the following terms: — ‘Leg,’ ‘Mug,’ ‘Sharp,’ ‘Dead’un,’ ‘He stands on velvet,’ and ‘The Aristocratic Tout.’.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 88: Touts, persons who attend to racing in the interest of bookmakers.
1896		F. Hutcheson Barkeep Stories 5: He was a race-horse tout by profession.
1902		‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘Hard Luck’ in Rio Grande’s Last Race (1904) 87: I left the course, and by my side / There walked a ruined tout.
1913		D. Runyon ‘In Old Juarez’ 1 Jan. [synd. col.] That’s Rock McGuire — / Rode for Keene, now a busted tout.
1926		Boys’ Realm 16 Jan. 266: He’s one of Evans’ touts, his pockets are crammed with betting slips.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Pick the Winner’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 311: A tout is a guy who goes around a race track giving out tips on the races.
1953		A.J. Liebling Honest Rainmaker (1991) 62: I asked him [i.e. a tipster] for his definition of the word ‘tout,’ but this proved injudicious.
1959		D. Niland Big Smoke 16: There were a few touts and hangers-on there.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 821: tout – One who gives tips on race horses, usually for a fee.
1966		J. Holledge Great Aust. Gamble 75: [He] thrust a roll of notes into the hands of a hanger-on and tout he knew, and told him to go and back Cocoa .
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 390: tout. An aggressive purveyor of frequently erroneous information, especially at a racetrack.

5. (UK prison) a despised policeman.

c.1850

‘Wakefield Gaol’ in R. Palmer A Touch of the Times 252: If the fates should me increase And make me deputy of police, And this blue bottle turned about, Oh, wouldn’t I nicely serve him out: I’d bone the tout in half a crack.

6. a journalist who picks up information based on police investigations then writes it up.

1888

J.S. Sandars in Evans & Skinner Jack the Ripper Sourcebook (2000) 117: [T]he great hindrance, which is caused to the efforts of the Police, by the activity of agents of Press Associations & Newspapers. These ‘touts’ follow the detectives wherever they go in search of clues, and then having interviewed persons with whom the police have had conversation and from whom inquiries have been made, compile the paragraphs which fill the papers.

7. a lookout for a criminal gang.

1892

H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 290: Dan Dolan is their leader, and Sandy Macintosh the tout.

8. (Aus.) one who spies for the purpose of blackmail.

1894		Truth (Sydney) 29 July 1/1: Meanwhile the Touts were at work, and the Underground Engineers conspiring desperately and villainously with the Orange Lodges.
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Nov. 13/1: A veteran correspondent writes re Sydney ‘touts’, foxers’, and blackmailers.
1924		G.H. Lawson Dict. of Aus. Words And Terms 🌐 TOUT — A spy.

9. a spy working for a casino owner, checking the honesty of the dealers.

1949

N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 115: He had out-lasted forty such touts.

10. (Irish/Scot.) an informer.

1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 209: A tout, traitor, quisling, or widemouth.
1976		Time 6 Sept. 27: Corrigan and Williams, who plan to take their campaign throughout Northern Ireland, have also received death threats and obscene letters branding them ‘touts.’.
1999		Guardian Editor 16 July 16: The head of IRA’s Southern Command turned ‘tout.’.
2009		L. McIlvanney All the Colours 142: ‘Do you know what a tout is, son?’.
2014		T. Black Artefacts of the Dead [ebook] Right, get onto all your touts, even the ones you haven’t seen for a while, and find him.

11. (drugs) an assistant to a street drug dealer, directing buyers to the seller.

1989		(con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 33: Many [...] work as steerers, touts, guards, runners, and ‘cop men.’.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 67: Touts, less trusted, are there to promote the product and bring in business. All are fiends [...] Touts serve as living billboards — walking, talking advertisements for the chemicals coursing through their bodies.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 151: James knew that his time had come now Liverpool’s dealers and touts wanted to make a fuss of him.
2002		Simon & Burns ‘The Buys’ Wire ser. 1 ep. 3 [TV script] Touts and children, that’s all you’re gonna get.