tout1
/taʊt
/verb
1 [with object] Attempt to sell (something), typically by a direct or persistent approach: Sanjay was touting his wares [no object]: shop managers would stand in the street touting for business...
- So it's no surprise to see every major player in the market touting special offers.
- The reply was to my now standard response to people hawking or touting things, which is ‘No thanks, I'm only interesting in drinking and girls’.
- Expanding an effort to position Caller ID as family friendly, Sprint this week will break a new TV, print and radio campaign in local markets to tout the service.
1.1Attempt to persuade people of the merits of: she was touted as a potential Prime Minister...
- It is too new and too insular just yet to be touted as having surpassed the personal skill of the candidate, the mainstream media and advertising as the most effective way to reach voters, as some have argued.
- Being organised by the Apparel Export Promotion Council, in association with the Ministry of Textiles, the fair is being touted as the biggest garment fair of the Indian apparel industry.
- All three have been touted as potential suitors for the Edinburgh-based bank in the past, and may yet be able to persuade their shareholders that it is worth paying a hefty premium for whisking her away from under Halifax's nose.
Synonyms
commend, endorse, praise, recommend, support, urge, push, speak of, talk of;
British tip
1.2British Sell (a ticket) for an event at a price higher than the official one: he made his fortune touting tickets
Synonyms
peddle, sell, hawk, offer for sale, market, vend;
promote, talk up, push, flaunt, advertise, publicize, puff, give a puff to
informal flog, hype, plug
2 [no object] North American Offer racing tips for a share of any resulting winnings.
2.1 [with object] chiefly British Spy out the movements and condition of (a racehorse in training) in order to gain information to be used when betting.
noun
1 (also ticket tout) British A person who buys up tickets for an event to resell them at a profit.That is unless you're prepared to shell out a hefty sum to a ticket tout....
- The US government's only hope is Kevin's identical twin Jake, an ticket tout who is planning to marry his student nurse girlfriend Julie (Washington).
- Afterwards, Mr Cullen said the award had a special meaning for him as back in the 1940s and 1950s he was a cinema ticket tout, which entitled him to watch free movies, and saw every Grace Kelly film.
Synonyms
ticket tout, illegal salesman
North American informal scalper
1.1A person soliciting custom or business, typically in a direct or persistent manner.This is the best term to use for touts - street hawkers who approach you at every tourist stop to ask you to buy things....
- If you can handle Delhi's touts, beggars, street-chaos, noise and hard bargaining, then the rest of India will feel like a bit of a walk in the park in comparison.
- There are no street-children, no touts and no drugs.
2North American A person who offers racing tips for a share of any resulting winnings.After a two-month trial, a former racetrack tout and his former accountant were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud people who invested in a racing syndicate....
- Lagging behind, he bought a $2 tip sheet from a racetrack tout, who told him for five bucks he would ‘mark all the winners.’
- They're worse than track touts, but certain ideas have crossed my mind.
3Northern Irish & Scottish informal An informer.I was there when people were re-located out of this country in the name of Ireland as touts or informers....
- For as long as there's been an Irish Republican Army, there have been informers - or touts, to use their description - in its ranks.
- You know, it's easy for people, oh, he's a tout and informer.
Derivatives
touter
- One subtext to the Post series is that the outrages against propriety and the law committed during the run-up by analysts, stock touters, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs were transparent and egregious.
- Internet ticket touters attempting to sell Rod Stewart Mission Concert tickets are coming under fire from desperate fans.
- Sales rooms existed throughout the Gold Coast with touters on virtually every busy pedestrian street luring unsuspecting holidaymakers into the worse nightmare of their lives with all sorts of appealing goodies.
Origin
Middle English tute 'look out', of Germanic origin; related to Dutch tuit 'spout, nozzle'. Later senses were 'watch, spy on' (late 17th century) and 'solicit custom' (mid 18th century). The noun was first recorded (early 18th century) in the slang use 'thieves' lookout'.
The early spelling was tute and the meaning ‘look out’. From a Germanic source, tout is related to Dutch tuit ‘spout, nozzle’ (from the notion of ‘protruding, poking one's head out’). Later senses were ‘watch, spy on’ (late 17th century), and ‘solicit custom’ (mid 18th century). The noun is first recorded in examples from the early 18th century in the slang use ‘thieves' lookout’. Ticket tout is first found in the mid 20th century.
Rhymes
tout2
/taʊt/ /tu/determiner (often le tout)
Used before the name of a city to refer to its high society or people of importance: le tout Washington adored him
Origin
French, suggested by le tout Paris 'all (of) Paris', used to refer to Parisian high society.