Also 7 sur-toute, 7–8 sur-tout, (8 surtoot, -toit (?), sourtoot, suttout (?), 9. surtoo). [a. F. surtout, f. sur above + tout everything.] A man’s great-coat or overcoat.
Applied c. 1870 to a kind of single-breasted frock-coat with pockets cut diagonally in front.
1686. Lond. Gaz., No. 2108/4. A white Surtout lin’d with black.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, iii. 250. The torn Surtout and the tatter’d Vest.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Surtout, a loose, great, or riding Coat.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull, II. iv. He was forced constantly to wear a surtout of oiled cloth, by which means he came home pretty clean.
1731. Swift, Answ. Simile, 140. And since we find you walk a-foot, We’ll soundly souce your frize surtout.
1788. Burns, Extempore on W. Smellie, 2. The old cock’d hat, the grey surtout.
1800. Weems, Washington, x. (1877), 113. With a surtout over his regimentals.
1840. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Ser. I. Tragedy. He put on his surtout, And went to a man with a beard like a Jew.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xi. He wore a long black surtout reaching nearly to his ancles.
1843. Lytton, Last Bar., IV. v. A green surtout of broad cloth over a tight vest of the same colour.
1858. Mrs. Oliphant, Laird of Norlaw, II. 39. The new coat which his mother called a surtoo.
1870. Dickens, E. Drood, xviii. Being buttoned up in a tightish blue surtout, with a buff waistcoat and gray trousers.
1894. Crockett, Raiders (ed. 3), 160. He was wont to take off his loose surtout and travel in his sleeved waistcoat.
attrib. 1686. Lond. Gaz., No. 2106/4. A new Red Coat lin’d with a Buff-colour’d lining, surtout Sleeves. Ibid. (1687), No. 2236/4. A light-colour’d … Sur-toute Coat. Ibid. (1703), No. 3957/4. A Cynnamon-colour Surtoit Coat with black Buttons. Ibid. (1710), No. 4739/4. A dark Suttout Coat.
1759. Phil. Trans., LI. 289. The velvet cape of a surtout coat.
† b. A hood (with a mantle), worn by women.
1690. Evelyn, Mundus Muliebris, 130. Pins … By which the curls are fastened, In radiant firmament set-out, And over all the hood sur-tout.
1694. N. H., Ladies Dict., 11/2. A Surtout, is a Night-Hood, which goes over, or covers the rest of the head geer.
1721. Ramsay, Tartana, 124. The Hood and Mantle make the tender faint; I’m pain’d to see them moving like a tent … But know each fair who shall this Sur-tout use, You’re no more Scots.
1785. G. A. Bellamy, Apol. (ed. 3), I. 109. My mother had prudently provided herself with a good surtout.
† c. fig. An outer covering or integument. Obs.
1732. Hist. Litteraria, IV. 167. The different sorts of Fruit,… some having a Surtout of a harder Texture, and some softer.
1771. Barrington, in Phil. Trans., LXV. 13. This upper … coat is composed also of hairs which are white from the top to the root, and form the winter surtout for the animal.
† d. Cookery. Applied to various fancy dishes.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Surtout, a Term in the Confectioners Art; as Pistachoes in Surtout…. Also a Term in Cookery, as Pigeons dress’d in Surtout.
1743. Lady’s Companion (ed. 4), I. 183. A Surtout of Soals.
