Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also totsy-wotsy) a very small or tiny child, an infant.

1725		A. Ramsay Gentle Shepherd I ii: Wow Jenny can there greater Pleasure be / Than see sic wee Tots toolying at your Knee.
1806		A. Douglas ‘Hard Times’ Poems in Scot. Dialect 41: O waes me! for our bloomin’ tots! / I ken na how we will, man, / Get hose an’ shoon, an’ sarks an’ coats, / To hap, an’ keep them hale, man.
1846		Thackeray Letters of Jeames in Works III (1898) 427: Nussing a deer little darlint totsy-wotsy of a Jeames.
1901		‘Miles Franklin’ My Brilliant Career 29: ‘Every one, right down to this little tot,’ indicating a little girl of five, ‘has to milk and work hard before and after school.’.
1902		Ade Forty Modern Fables 279: He knew just when the first Tooth ought to be through the Gum, and at what Age a Tot should manage to Stand.
1913		L. Light Modern Hobo 75: I shook each by the hand and as ‘tot,’ the baby insisted on kissing me, I accommodated her.
1920		V. Lindsay Golden Whales of Calif. 15: The tots sang: ‘Ring a rosie—’.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 115: Uncle Toby’s page for tiny tots.
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 176: Twelve Little Plays for the Tots.
1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 83: He pretended he was interested in the darling tot.
1940		J. Betjeman ‘Group Life: Letchworth’ in Coll. Poems (1970) 69: What a lot my dicky chicky / Tiny tots have done.
1959		J. Thompson Getaway in Four Novels (1983) 75: There were nine of them, husband and wife and seven stair-step children – the youngest a toddling tot, the eldest a rawboned boy.
1963		N. Dunn Up the Junction 124: A tiny tot peers round her legs.
1977		P. O’Farrell Book of Irish Farmers’ Jokes 29: The farmer’s tiny tot toddled around the kitchen.
1982		R. Dahl Revolting Rhymes n.p.: I say again, how would you feel / If you had made this lovely meal / And some delinquent little tot / Broke in and gobbled up the lot?
1999		Indep. on Sun. Culture 13 June 5: Those dummy plastic telephones that tots enjoy sucking on.
2000		Guardian G2 21 Jan. 4: I watched tots flee in terror.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 389: [C]arted off to the hospital to bring a junkie tot into the world.

2. a small glass of alcohol, e.g. a tot of rum.

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 260: Tot a small glass; a ‘tot o’ whisky’ is the smallest quantity sold.
1879		‘’Arry in Parry’ in Punch 15 Nov. 217/1: They sits at the caffys and chatters, and tipples up tots weak as tea.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 11: Tot - A small glass, as ‘a tot of rum’ (sea).
1887		Illus. London News 26 Feb. 2: South African [...] slang colloquialisms [...] a trader among the Boers is a ‘smouse’; a drink is a ‘tot’ .
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 265: I could see he’d had a tot, early as it was.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 87: Tot, a small glass.
1907		W.H. Koebel ‘Cockerton’s Farewell’ in Return of Joe 103: He poured out with unsteady hand a liberal ‘tot’ of whisky.
1915		H. Lawson ‘The Horseshoe and the Clock’ in Roderick (1972) 837: Benno got two tots [...] and we sat down on a big beam, or baulk of timber [...] to have breakfast.
c.1921		T. Norman Penny Showman 26: After having a few tots.
1945		‘Henry Green’ Loving (1978) 21: ‘Study what?’ Bert said, bolder by his tot now the glass he held was empty.
1962		W.R. Burnett Widow Barony 32: [O]ld Riggs was fuming over his fifth tot of rum.
1975		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 12: ‘You’re late, don’t sit, we’re going out,’ she croaked, throwing over the thimble-sized tot.
1988		A. Payne ‘The Last Video Show’ Minder [TV script] 37: Arthur [...] pours himself a big tot.

3. (also tote) a very heavy drinker.

1912

Bulletin (Sydney) 25 July 36/1: Haters of guzzle and gambling, fierce on the drab and the drink, / Pushing the minions of Evil nearer and nearer the brink; / Saying to Tot and to Flossie – ‘’Way from our suburb select! / Get you a harbor, ye gay ones, out of the sight of our sect.’.