Brewer's: Tout

(pronounce towt). To ply or seek for customers. “A touter” is one who touts. (From Tooting, where persons on their way to the court held at Epsom were pestered by “touts.”

“A century or two ago, when the court took up Its quarters at Epsom ... [many of] the inhabitants used to station themselves at the point where the roads fork off the Epsom by Tooting and Merton, and `tout' the travellers to pass through Tooting. It become a common expression for carriage-folk to say, `The Toots are on its again.' ” —Walford: Greater London, vol. ii. p. 530.

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