tout v.
1. to watch, to spy on.
Eng. Rogue I 52: Tout his muns, Look in his face. | ||
Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Tout through the Wicket, and see where a Cully pikes with his Gentry-Mort, whose Muns are the rummest I ever touted before: Look through the Casement, and see where a Man walks with a Gentlewoman, whose Face is the fairest I have ever seen. | ||
Triumph of Wit 195: [as cit. c.1698]. | ||
Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 204: [...] Tout the case, i.e., to view, mark or eye the house or shop. | ||
The Quaker’s Opera II i: And when we come unto the Whit, / Our Darbies to behold [...] we bouze the Water Cold. / But as I’ve liv’d to come out again, / If the merry Old Roger I meet, / I’ll tout his Muns, and I’ll snable his Poll / As he Pikes along the Street. | ||
Life and Character of Moll King 12: I’ll derrick, my Blood, if I tout my Mort, I’ll tip her a Snitch about the Peeps and Nasous. | ||
Muses Delight 177: As I derick’d along to doss on my kin / Young Molly the fro-file I touted, / She’d nail’d a rum codger of tilter and nab, / But in filing his tatler was routed. | ‘A Cant Song’||
‘The Bowman Prigg’s Farewell’ in | (1995) 283: But pray don’t you bring it yourself: / Harmans are at the Old Bailey. / I’d rather you would send it behalf, / For if they tout you they’ll nail you.||
Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 275: tout: to tout a person, is to watch his motions. | ||
London Guide 54: I gave them room to imagine I was such a fool as to be touting the landlady. | ||
Pelham III 291: Ah, Bess, my covess, strike me blind if my sees don’t tout your bingo muns in spite of the darkmans. | ||
Dict. of the Flash or Cant Lang. 166/1: To Tout – to watch. | ||
Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 1 Apr. 3/1: Look out, John, for Miles’ Boy is touting you off. | ||
Digby Grand (1890) 46: The unusual spectacle of two gentlemen ‘touting’ their own horse. | ||
, , | Sl. Dict. | |
Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 9: Tout - To watch. | ||
Musa Pedestris (1896) 176: Bonnet, or tout, or mump and gag; / Rattle the tats, or mark the spot. | ‘Villon’s Straight Tip’ in Farmer||
Aus. Sl. Dict. 88: Tout, to watch. | ||
(con. 1791) Truth (Brisbane) 30 Aug. 6/5: [T]he woman sent him the following message:‘Sam, don't go near the tobacco, for it is touted.’ (‘Touted’ is slang for watched.). | ||
Great Aust. Gamble 41: I had been touting this thing for months, and here it was ready to ‘go off’. |
2. (UK Und.) to keep a careful lookout, to be on one’s guard.
Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Tout c. to look out Sharp, to be upon one’s Guard. Who Touts? c. who looks out sharp? Tout the Culls, c. Eye those Folks which way they take. | ||
New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. | ||
Street Robberies Considered 34: Tout, take heed. | ||
, , , | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. | |
Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Tout, [...] thieves or smugglers looking out to see that the coast is clear. | ||
Dict. Sl. and Cant. | ||
Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785]. | ||
Real Life in London I 559: Many a twelver † does he get by buying up broken images of persons who sell them by wholesale, and he of course gets them for little or nothing: then what does he do but dresses out his board, to give them the best appearance he can, and toddles into the streets, touting†† for a good customer. [†† Touting — To be upon the sharp look out]. | ||
Modern Flash Dict. | ||
Venetia I 153: Queer cuffin will be the word yet, if we don’t tout. | ||
Swell’s Night Guide K5: Tout To Look Out Sharp. | ||
, | Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. | |
Child of the Jago (1982) 96: Josh waited long and touted vainly. |
3. (US drugs) to work as an assistant to a drug dealer.
Corner (1998) 261: Ronnie takes up touting a package for the New York crew. | ||
Night Gardener 156: We touted and ran for a while, too, over there on Seventh. |
4. (Irish) to work as a police informer.
Hitmen 14: [I]f Reay had been touting, it was unsual that he would have been charged. |