Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also tout) a drinking match.

1790

1790

A. Shirrefs Poems 36: Gloss. Tout, [...] a drinking match .

2. (also tooterino, tout) a drunken binge or spree; usu. in phr. on a/the toot, also in fig. use; later use embraces drugs (see cite 2016).

1790

18001850190019502000

2016

1790		A. Shirrefs Poems 36: Gloss. Tout, a drinking-bout.
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 13 Dec. 1/2: An irreverent wag wrote below a picture of Gabriel blowing the last horn, ‘Off on a toot’.
1891		C.H. Hoyt Trip to Chinatown Act III: Drunk as a boiled owl! I knew everybody else was on a toot, so I filled up!
1900		A.H. Lewis ‘Hamilton Finnerty’s Heart’ Sandburrs 63: A good toot will be d’ t’ing to allay me natural uneasiness.
1902		Ade Forty Modern Fables 93: So they went on a Toot of the High-Lonesome Variety.
1903		Nebraska State Jrnl (Lincoln, NE) 14 June 9/5: The book [...] was all on the side of the hearthstone, and agin him on the tooterino question.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 13 Apr. 2/4: When first I met him [...] his daughter was earning a hundred a weeK, and life was a continuous toot.
1915		Van Loan ‘On Account of a Lady’ Taking the Count 124: One of de regular waiters is out on a toot.
1926		J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 148: When she ‘went on a toot’ the town marshal went fishing or hunting, and her more timid business rivals closed their places.
1937		E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 26: He won’t never go on a real toot around here.
1939		Wodehouse Uncle Fred in the Springtime 28: ‘[H]e was planning to go on a toot the moment my back was turned’.
1944		E. Wilson 7 Sept. [synd. col.] Some of the datelines could read not ‘En route with Dewey’ but ‘On a toot with Dewey’.
1951		M. Spillane One Lonely Night 65: She smelt a toot coming up.
1955		S. Allen Bop Fables 66: Jack, who was no astute galoot, went on a toot with a local beaut.
1966		M. Rumaker Exit 3 and Other Stories 77: I mean when you’re off on a toot and ain’t careful.
1967		(con. 1940s) M. Dibner Admiral (1968) 260: You two guys sure had yourselves a toot.
1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 434: That’s a bunch of rumdumbs on a toot.
1974		(con. 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 230: His uncle had always spoken as if words were a penny apiece and he was saving up for some secret loquacious toot.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 185: Next time you go on a toot come on up.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 185: Stensland on toot at Raincheck Room, 3871 W. Gage.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Hot-Prowl Rape-O’ Destination: Morgue! (2004) 310: ‘Where’s Wino Weinberger? We’re old friends.’ [...] ‘Try Skid Row. I heard Wino’s on a toot down there.’.
2016		M. Carey ‘Bad News’ 164: [H]e had slipped badly, having gone on a coke toot with two fellow addicts.

3. (also tout) a swallow of a drink, a drink.

1787

1800185019001950

a.1968

1787		A. Shirrefs Jamie and Bess I ii: I ken my Simon has o’er mickle sense, When he is sober, e’er to gi’e offence [...] But, then, anither tout may change his mind.
1908		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Octopus Marooned’ Gentle Grafter (1915) 7: Bird City hoppd out of its nest, waggd its pin feathers and strolled out for its matutinal toot.
1951		S. Longstreet Pedlocks (1971) 58: Joseph had bought the broncs for forty dollars and a jug of squirrel whisky (‘two toots – stranger – and you climb trees’).
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 212: Toot A beer.

4. cocaine.

1979

19801990200020102020

2024

1979		High Times Jan. 33: A couple from Flushing, Queens, New York, was busted on a Miami street corner in possession of nine pounds of toot.
1984		C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 81: His voice left the listener intensely high as though he had sniffed a gram of toot.
1992		K. Lette Llama Parlour 189: Just lemme score some toot an’ I’ll siddown an’ tell you everythin’.
2003		Mad mag. July 13: I want the toot and nothing but the toot.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 893: [S]acks of toot and carlos, bulgy luggage with millions in banknotes.

5. a measure of a narcotic, usu. cocaine, enough for a single inhalation; thus an inhalation.

1973

19801990200020102020

2021

1973		D. Goines Street Players 16: You don’t want your big chief Earl to know that you like a toot now and then.
1981		J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 264: Billie from Topeka got hold of herself, and took another little toot of cocaine.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 221: ‘It’s called having a toot, Les’, he said, bending his head over the mirror .
1992		K. Lette Llama Parlour 101: Pierce [...] hoovered up a white line and passed it [i.e. a straw] to me. ‘Wanna toot?’.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 281: [of heroin] It is phenomenal how fast a little toot of smack will take away the agony of withdrawal.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 3: [of heroin] Gettin a toot then, am I?
2002		R.G. Barrett Mystery Bay Blues 271: Apart from smoking pot and maybe having a toot now and again Edwin wasn’t a dealer.
2005		B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 26: If you got in [...] you were guaranteed a toot and a shag.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 29: Your next toot’s on the house.
2021		T. Swerdlow Straight Dope [ebook] I try to stay calm but it’s hard, even with a couple toots off the foil in me.

6. (N.Z. prison) a non-specific drug.

1999

19992000

2001

1999		D. Looser ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 36: toot n.Marijuana.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 191/1: toot n. any of various drugs, e.g. marijuana, pills, speed, and snuff.

7. (UK drugs) a puff of a cannabis cigarette.

2009

2009

R. Milward Ten Storey Love Song 26: The ashtrays getting passed around with reefers on top of them. She takes a toot or two.