Also 8 toute. [f. TOUT v.1]
1. A thieves’ scout or watchman. slang.
1718. C. Higden, True Disc., 13 (Farmer). He is a pushing toute, alias thieves’ watchman, that lies scouting in and about the City to get and bring intelligence to the thieves.
2. One who solicits custom; = TOUTER 1.
1853. Household Words, VII. 26/1. Touts and spungers to foreign hotels and on foreign visitors.
1879. Sala, Paris Herself Again (1880), II. xi. 163. A regular house to house visitation was made … by touts or agents of the insurers.
1881. Besant & Rice, Chapl. of Fleet, I. vi. Ludgate Hill, where the touts of the Fleet parsons ran up and down.
1881. Hughes, Rugby, Tennessee, 34. The hotel touts rush on you.
3. (More fully racing tout.) One who surreptitiously watches the trials of race-horses, so as to gain information for betting purposes: = TOUTER 2.
1865. Slang Dict., Tout, in sporting phraseology … signifies an agent in the training districts, on the look-out for information as to the condition and capabilities of those horses entering for a coming race.
1887. Black, Sabina Zembra, I. vi. 86. I … don’t object to seeing the touts coming about; it shows they think we have some horses worth watching.
4. The action of TOUT v.1; in phrase to keep (the) tout, to watch. slang.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., s.v., To keep tout, is to look out or watch, while your pall is effecting any private purpose. A strong tout, is strict observation, or eye, upon any proceedings, or persons.
1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, IV. ii. [They] on each other kept the tout.
