Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to watch, to spy on.

1665		Head Eng. Rogue I 52: Tout his muns, Look in his face.
1688		J. Shirley Triumph of Wit 216: Look through the Casement Tout through the Wicket.
c.1698		B.E. 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.
1707		J. Shirley Triumph of Wit (5 edn) 195: [as cit. c.1698].
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 204: [...] Tout the case, i.e., to view, mark or eye the house or shop.
1728		T. Walker 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.
1747		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.
1754		G. Stevens ‘A Cant Song’ 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.
1790		‘The Bowman Prigg’s Farewell’ in Wardroper (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.
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 275: tout: to tout a person, is to watch his motions.
1818		W. Perry London Guide 54: I gave them room to imagine I was such a fool as to be touting the landlady.
1828		Lytton Pelham III 291: Ah, Bess, my covess, strike me blind if my sees don’t tout your bingo muns in spite of the darkmans.
1839		H. Brandon Dict. of the Flash or Cant Lang. 166/1: To Tout – to watch.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 1 Apr. 3/1: Look out, John, for Miles’ Boy is touting you off.
1853		G.J. Whyte-Melville Digby Grand (1890) 46: The unusual spectacle of two gentlemen ‘touting’ their own horse.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 9: Tout - To watch.
1887		W.E. Henley ‘Villon’s Straight Tip’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 176: Bonnet, or tout, or mump and gag; / Rattle the tats, or mark the spot.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 88: Tout, to watch.
1903		(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.).
1966		J. Holledge 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.

c.1698		B.E. 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.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1728		Defoe Street Robberies Considered 34: Tout, take heed.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Tout, [...] thieves or smugglers looking out to see that the coast is clear.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1821		‘An Amateur’ 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].
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1837		Disraeli Venetia I 153: Queer cuffin will be the word yet, if we don’t tout.
1841		‘F.L.G.’ Swell’s Night Guide K5: Tout To Look Out Sharp.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1896		A. Morrison Child of the Jago (1982) 96: Josh waited long and touted vainly.

3. (US drugs) to work as an assistant to a drug dealer.

1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 261: Ronnie takes up touting a package for the New York crew.
2006		G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 156: We touted and ran for a while, too, over there on Seventh.

4. (Irish) to work as a police informer.

2021

Breen & Conlon Hitmen 14: [I]f Reay had been touting, it was unsual that he would have been charged.