colloq. or local. [app. a recent word; recorded 1725. Origin uncertain. Tottr occurs in Icel. as the nickname of a dwarfish person, and tommel-tot as Danish for Tom Thumb; but no connection has been traced.]
1. A very small or tiny child.
1725. Ramsay, Gentle Sheph., I. ii. Wow! Jenny, can there greater pleasure be Than see sic wee tots toolying at your knee?
1865. Cornh. Mag., March, 355. Her tiny trembling tot with yellow hair.
1896. ‘Ian Maclaren,’ Kate Carnegie, 25. I’ve had it since I was a little tot and could remember anything.
b. Tot-o’er-seas, a local name of the Goldcrest.
1885. Swainson, Provinc. Names Birds, 25. Goldcrest…. From its tiny size. Tot o’er seas.
1895. Newton, Dict. Birds, Tot-o’er-seas, a name by which Regulus cristatus is said to be known on some parts of the east coast.
2. A very small drinking-vessel; a child’s mug. (See also quot. 1845.) Chiefly dial.
1828. Craven Gloss., Tot, a cup or glass.
1845. Sir H. B. Edwardes, in Mem. (1886), I. 33. That half-mad camel, who is overladen with tents and tots. [Note. Tin pots, out of which the European soldiers drink.]
1872. Daily News, 5 Sept. Dark figures [soldiers] … throw themselves down on the straw, and investigate into the contents of the mug or of the tot.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Miner’s Right, xxvii. Give me that ‘tot’ that I see tied to your saddle.
1891. Sale Catal. Glass Wks. Stourbridge. Twenty-seven tots. Two flower bowls.
3. A minute quantity of anything, esp. of drink; a dram; also, anything very small.
1828. in Craven Gloss.
1847–78. Halliwell, Tot, anything very small. East.
1856. Kane, Arctic Explor., II. vii. 78. We jabbed the stopper down the whiskey-tin and gave you a tot of it.
1878. F. S. Williams Midl. Railw. 527. The hole is charged with gunpowder,—about a pint-or two tots.’. being usually enough.
1908. Times, 30 July, 8/3. The issue of tots of rum’on cold nights was not only not desirable, but absolutely pernicious.
