toot

See also: tòòt and tööt

English

Etymology 1

A trumpet tooting (verb sense 4)

Probably onomatopoeic in origin. Compare Dutch toeteren (“to blow a horn”), German tuten, Swedish tuta, Danish tude.

Noun sense 7 ("Mastodon post") and verb sense 10 ("to post on Mastodon") are influenced by tweet (“Twitter post”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtuːt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtut/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• IPA^(key): /ˈtʊt/ (as sense 6 "rubbish, tat")

  • Audio (General Australian):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -uːt, -ʊt

Noun

toot (countable and uncountable, plural toots)

2. (countable) The noise of a horn or whistle.

   He gave a little toot of the horn, to get their attention.

4. (by extension, countable, informal) A fart; flatus.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:flatulence

6. (uncountable, slang) Cocaine.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:cocaine

7. (countable, slang) A portion of cocaine that a person snorts.
   • 1981, New York Magazine, volume 14, number 35, page 30:

     So he took a toot. A couple of days later he did another, then another. Soon Harry was using more coke than he had done in his whole life.

9. (informal) A spree of drunkenness.
11. (uncountable, informal) Rubbish; tat.

    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:trash

    I'm not paying fifty pounds for this load of old toot!

13. (countable, social media) A message on the social networking software Mastodon.
    • 2017 April 4, Madison Malone Kircher, “What the Heck Is Mastodon, and Why Is Everyone Talking About It?”, in New York Magazine:

      As for layout, Mastodon feels a little like TweetDeck, with columns for your toots, toots from the people you follow, your mentions, and (unlike Twitter) a timeline of all public posts being shared by every user on the platform.

    • 2017 April 5, “Mastodon is here; will you stop tweeting and start tooting?”, in The Indian Express:

      Interestingly, Mastodon offers a bit more in that aspect for toots can be 500 characters long.

    • 2017 April 5, Jack Morse, “Bye, Twitter. All the cool kids are migrating to Mastodon”, in Mashable Australia:

      Mastodon users can send toots with 500 characters as opposed to Twitter's 140. But that's not the only difference. Individual toots can be marked as private, meaning you don't have to choose between a public or a private account like on Twitter.

    • 2018 August 24, Beth Skwarecki, “A Beginner's Guide to Mastodon”, in Lifehacker:

      So if I follow Nick, his toots (yep, they're called toots) will show up in wandering.shop's federated timeline.

Derived terms

Terms derived from toot (noun)

• on a toot
• subtoot
• tinker's toot

 

Translations

noise of a horn or whistle

• Bulgarian: звуков сигнал m (zvukov signal)
• Catalan: xiulet (ca) m, siulat (ca) m
• Dutch: getoeter (nl) n
• Finnish: tuuttaus
• French: pouët (fr) m, pouet (fr) m
• Hungarian: dudaszó (hu), dudálás (hu), kürtszó (hu), kürtölés (hu), sípszó (hu), sípolás (hu), trombitaszó (hu), trombitálás
• Italian: fischio (it) m
• Maori: piopi
• Portuguese: apito (pt) m
• Russian: гудо́к (ru) m (gudók), свист (ru) m (svist) (whistle)
• Spanish: silbato (es) m
• Swedish: tut (sv) n
• Vietnamese: tiếng còi, huýt (vi)

flatulence — see fart

Mastodon post

• German: Tröt m, Toot m
• Portuguese: toot m

Verb

toot (third-person singular simple present toots, present participle tooting, simple past and past participle tooted)

2. To stand out, or be prominent.
   • 1519, John Rastell, Four Elements:

     Now rise up, Master Huddypeke, Your tail toteth out behind.

4. To peep; to look narrowly.
   • 1550 November 9, Hugh Latimer, A Sermon preached at Stamford:

     In the court, in the noblemen's houses, at every merchant's house, those Observants were spying, tooting, and looking, watching and prying, what they might hear or see against the see of Rome.

   • 1579, Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender:

     Long wandering up and downe the land, With bowe and bolts in either hand, For birds in bushes tooting.

6. To see; to spy.

   Alternative form: tout

8. To produce the noise of a horn or whistle.

   Synonym: (obsolete) poop

   • 1855, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Newcomes:

     The island rang, as yet, with the tooting horns and rattling teams of mail-coaches.

   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 205:

     A horn tooted to the right, and I saw the black people run.

10. To cause a horn or whistle to produce a noise.
12. (slang) To flatulate.

    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:flatulate

14. (intransitive) Of a queen bee, to make a high-pitched sound during certain stages of development.

    Coordinate terms: quack, pipe

16. (slang) To go on a drinking binge.
18. (slang) To snort (a recreational drug).
    • 2008, Robert L. Glover, Street Corner Symphony: An American Story, page 65:

      I had graduated from the simple tooting cocaine up my nose to smoking it, which was a completely different experience and animal.

20. (social media) To post a message on a Mastodon instance.

    Hyponym: boost

    • 2017 April 5, Jack Morse, “Bye, Twitter. All the cool kids are migrating to Mastodon”, in Mashable Australia:

      Only want to toot in the Animal Rights instance? You can create an account there and do that.

    • 2018 February 8, Marie Boran, “Why tweet when you can toot on Mastodon”, in The Irish Times:

      One alternative to Fist is Mastodon, which looks and behaves a bit like Twitter (you don’t tweet, you “toot”).

    • 2018 August 24, Beth Skwarecki, “A Beginner's Guide to Mastodon”, in Lifehacker:

      Each instance has its own administrator and its own code of conduct, so make sure you read up before you toot.

Derived terms

Terms derived from toot (verb)

• darn tootin'
• subtoot
• tooter
• toot one's own horn

 

Translations

to make the sound of a horn

• Bulgarian: давам звуков сигнал (davam zvukov signal)
• Czech: troubit (cs) impf, houkat (cs) impf, zatroubit pf, zahoukat pf
• German: tröten (de)
• Hungarian: dudál (hu), kürtöl (hu), trombitál (hu), sípol (hu)
• Maori: piopi
• Portuguese: buzinar (pt)
• Swedish: tuta (sv)

to flatulate — see fart

to post to Mastodon

• German: tröten (de)
• Portuguese: tootar

Etymology 2

Perhaps a contraction of toilet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtʊt/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊt

Noun

toot (plural toots)

1. (Australia, slang) A toilet.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:bathroom

Translations

toilet — see toilet

See also

• toot plant
• toot suite, toot sweet

References

• “toot”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “toot”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “toot”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “toot”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Anagrams

• Otto, otto, Toto, toto, OTOT