Now dial. Also Sc. tot. [Short for total: cf. TOT sb.3]
1. The total amount, number, or sum. Mostly in pleonastic phrase the whole tote.
1771–2. Ess. fr. Batchelor (1773), II. 40. That this was the whole tote of his case is notoriously known.
1774. Foote, Cozeners, III. Wks. 1799, II. 180. My bill?… what is the tote?
a. 1801. R. Gall, Poems, Tint Quey (1819), 37. Where the hale tot, for fear o’ skaith, Were fley’d to speak aboon their breath.
1810. Bentham, Mem. & Corr., Wks. 1843, X. 460. Let me have the whole tote.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, III. 384. Our gals—the whole tote of them.
1830. Galt, Lawrie T., I. iv. Only myself of the whole tot was accustomed to the handling of iron.
1905. in Eng. Dial. Dict. (from Northumbld. to E. Anglia and Cornwall, with long ō).
2. Also dial. or low colloq., abbreviation of total abstainer (also tot); and in Australian colloq. of TOTALIZATOR; hence tote-man, tote-shop.
c. 1870. Music Hall Song (Farmer). By all of his mates called the Tote.
1887. Mather, Nor’ard of the Dogger, 239. The fishermen are all ‘totes.’
1891. E. Kinglake, Australian at H., 74. Altogether, bookmakers, ‘tote’ proprietors, sweep promotors, in spite of occasional fines of £50 and £100 … drive a roaring trade in Australia.
1901. Westm. Gaz., 8 March, 5/1. One of his audience called out: ‘Are you a ‘tot.’?’ ‘Yes,’ the Bishop replied. ‘All right, go on, then; if you wasn’t I wouldn’t listen to you.’ Ibid. (1902), 25 July, 1/3. You … walk into the money order department and deposit the amount you would have invested on the Tote.
1906. Daily Chron., 3 Aug., 4/7. Nearly 2,000 … entering the gambling dens or ‘tote-shops.’
