colloq. A playful or endearing name for a child’s or a woman’s small foot.
1847. Observer, 5 Sept., 7/4. The child’s name is Alfred, but she persists in calling him ‘Cutsy, cutsy, cutsy,’ and teaches him that his feet are ‘toosy-pootsies,’ and his hands ‘daddles.’
1854. Thackeray, Rose & Ring (1855), xi. 65. As for the shoe, what was she to do with one poor little tootsey sandal? the string was still to it, so she hung it round her neck.
1865. Ellen C. Clayton, Cruel Fortune, III. 90. You could not let little Aubrey starve, I suppose, or go about with his poor little tootsies peeping out from the tips of his boots—eh?
1897. Gunter, Susan Turnbull, v. 57. Yer [a young lady of 19] swate little tootsy-wootsies will be as safe as if they were tucked in yer little cot bed upstairs.
1906. Charlotte Mansfield, Girl & Gods, xii. But if you are walking along a muddy road with old shoes on, all the idealistic thought in the world won’t keep the damp away from your poor tootsies.
