tot, n.² — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

tot n.²

[Ger. tod, dead]

a rag or bone.

1899		H. Wyndham Queen’s Service 22: Anything... left on the tot, or bone, is the recognised perquisite of the orderly-man [F&H].
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 202: ‘Could you spare me a few old rags what I could sell.’ They nearly always touches lucky and cops. When they’ve got about a hundredweight of tots...
1950		P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 192/1: Tots. Rags.

In compounds

tot-hunter (n.)

lit. a collector of bones, which were recycled in a variety of manufacturing processes; used as a term of abuse.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 248/2: Tot-hunter (Low Life). Bone-collector – generally used offensively in quarrels, and in reference to parents.

tot-picker (n.) (also tot-raker)

a scavenger, a ‘rag-and-bone man’.

1873		Sl. Dict. 327: ‘Tot’ is a bone, but chiffoniers and cinder-hunters generally are called Tot-pickers nowadays.
1902		L. Williams Land of the Dons 35: The trapero (half scavenger, half ragpicker, or as London slang would call him, the tot-raker).
1916		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 3 July 1/7: A 10s Treasury note has been found by a ‘tot-raker’ in a bin in Cannon Street.
1943		Police Journal XVI 70: TOTTER, TOT- RAKER: one who searches dustbins for scraps, etc.

tot n.2

In compounds

tot n.²