Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Aus./US) to hurry along.

1907		N.Z. Truth 26 Jan. 6/7: The Northcotes are tooting round Tassey’s apple garden.
1918		Aussie (France) VII Sept. 2/2: The girls, self-conscious and thoroughly embarrassed, broke and fled. As they tooted it across the street, an astonished Digger remarked: ‘Struth! You’d thought I yelled “mice” at them!’.
1928		Lima (OH) News 12 Oct. 11/1: When he says a ship is ‘tooting along’ he means the same thing an automobile driver would mean if he said his car was running along fine.
1952		K. Vonnegut ‘Any Reasonable Offer’ in Bagombo Snuff Box (1999) 39: Call me back when you’ve got a reaction, and I’ll toot out with an offer form all ready to go.
1972		(con. 1916) G. Swarthout Tin Lizzie Troop (1978) 18: We bought the cars for runabouts. You know, to toot in to El Paso.
1982		S. King Different Seasons (1995) 467: I’m gonna toot home.

2. (Can.) in fig. use, to be active, to prosper [cite 1938 suggests poss. underpinning of tooting an instrument].

1938

Ottowa Citizen (Ontario) 11 June 19/3: Cohen launched the Saturday night Swing Club program [...] and still [it] is tootin’ as strong as ever.