tout
(tout)
[Middle English tuten, to peer.]
verb: tout·ed, tout·ing, touts.
intransitive verb
- To solicit customers, votes, or patronage, especially in a brazen way.
- To obtain and deal in information on racehorses.
transitive verb
- To solicit or importune: street vendors who were touting pedestrians.
- Chiefly British To obtain or sell information on (a racehorse or stable) for the guidance of bettors.
- To promote or praise energetically; publicize: “For every study touting the benefits of hormone therapy, another warns of the risks” (Yanick Rice Lamb)
noun
- Chiefly British One who obtains information on racehorses and their prospects and sells it to bettors.
- One who solicits customers brazenly or persistently: “The administration of the nation's literary affairs falls naturally into the hands of touts and thieves” (Lewis H. Lapham)
- Chiefly Scots and Irish Slang One who informs against others; an informer.
derivatives
- tout́er
- noun
