toot
/tuːt
/noun
1A short, sharp sound made by a horn, trumpet, or similar instrument: an accidental toot from the saxophonist the blue van’s familiar toots...
- Perhaps if every motorist gave a sharp toot of the horn at every bump, this might encourage a movement from the over-indulged Burley residents to get the road straightened out again, to the benefit of the damaged majority.
- Steam engines give a warning blast as they move off or sound a warning toot from their whistles as they thunder through stations.
- Douglas in particular had a penchant for extending the limits of his instrument, using toots, whistles and breathing noises in some of his improvisational work.
2 informal A snort of a drug, especially cocaine: he still likes a toot...
- We decline the chief's offer of a toot on his opium pipe - I'm not sure if I need things to be any stranger than they already are - and head back to camp.
- Then I moved to Blackburn five years ago into the high rise at Larkhill, and started working with a lad from Blackburn and one day caught him having a toot in his car and ending up having a toot with him.
- Frankly, what's the point in being super-rich if you can't just have a toot and a twang in the garden?
2.1 [mass noun] Cocaine: you won’t have me to supply you with free toot
3North American informal A spell of drinking and lively enjoyment; a spree: a sales manager on a toot...
- Traditionally run by women and without licences, today's shebeens and taverns are a profitable option based on humanity's fondness for the occasional toot.
verb [with object]
1Sound (a horn or similar) with a short, sharp sound: an impatient motorist tooted a horn...
- I went to the mass picket and heard comments like, ‘This is good-loads of people including taxi drivers tooted their horns in support as they went past.’
- The driver tooted his horn and zipped off in the direction of Baggage Claim.
- Crackers went off and passing drivers tooted horns and waved flags as they weaved through the crowd.
1.1 [no object] Make a toot: a car tooted at us...
- Are you really going to win an argument with an officer who has already cut you off, then pulled you over and whipped out a ticket book because you had tooted at him?
- My grandfather used to tell me, as he tooted at her from his mint condition Allegro, that she had spent the best part of her years waiting at the side of the road for her long-lost sweetheart to return.
- It squawked and tooted at him, every light flashing.
2 informal Snort (cocaine): the drawbacks of tooting cocaine...
- Women were spending too much time lounging around on cushions tooting away on pipes in the company of men.
- ‘We tooted and tooted,’ says Harry, ‘until the white sugar lump melted into the pale horizon.’
- Pick up a newspaper and it's all rappers and rude boys toting guns and tooting coke.
Derivatives
tooter
- Not to toot my own tooter, but yours truly was way ahead of the curve on this reality programming biz.
Origin
Early 16th century: probably from Middle Low German tūten, but possibly an independent imitative formation.