Definition of "tout"

Paul Muniment looked at his young friend a moment. 'Do you want to know what he is? He's a tout.''A tout? What do you mean?''Well, a cat's-paw, if you like better.'

1886, Henry James, The Princess Casamassima, London: Macmillan and Co.

No one, however, would have anything to do with him, as Mr. Keeson's orders in those respects were very strict ; he had often threatened any one of his employés with instant dismissal if he found him in company with one of these touts.

1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, in The Hocussing of Cigarette‎

The Derry Brigade of the IRA thought it had got rid of its informer problem when earlier that year it executed Paddy Flood as a tout, after holding him for six weeks.

2011, Hugh Jordan, Milestones in Murder: Defining Moments in Ulster's Terror War

China has touted its policy of non-interference for decades.

2016 January 25, “Why Arabs would regret a toothless Chinese dragon”, in The National, retrieved 25 January 2016

For the 75 years since a district rebellion was put down, The Games have existed as an assertion of the Capital’s power, a winner-take-all contest that touts heroism and sacrifice—participants are called “tributes”— while pitting the districts against each other.

2012, Scott Tobias, “The Hunger Games”, in The A.V. Club

Newspaper articles also were generally positive in tone, although a tendency towards sensationalism means that the spread of hybrid forms is occasionally touted as the universal language of the future.

2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide‎, page 9

To understand the new London, I lived it. I slept rough with Roma beggars and touted for work with Baltic laborers on the kerb.

March 1, 2016, Ben Judah on BBC Business Daily

Nor durst Orcanes view the Soldan's face, / But still upon the floor did pore and tout.

1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, X, lvi