subs. (common).—1. Generic for anything small: spec. an endearment: e.g., a wee TOT = a little child: cf. TODDLEKINS. Also (2) a measure holding a gill; whence a nip or dram, a GO (q.v.); as verb = to drink: see TOTE.
1725. RAMSAY, The Gentle Shepherd, i., 2 [Works, II. 63]. Sic wee TOTS toolying at your knee.
1868. WHYTE-MELVILLE, The White Rose, II. i. He … often found himself pining for … the glare of the camp-fires, the fragrant fumes of the ‘honey-dew,’ and the TOT of rum that passed from beard to beard.
1886. St. James’s Gazette, 10 Sept. Haydn … liked company; but if a guest stayed beyond a certain period, the great composer would suddenly start up, tap his forehead and say, ‘Excuse me, I have a TOT’; by which he meant that he had a thought, and must go to his study to jot it down. A minute after he would return, looking all the brighter; and as forgetful as the Irish judge of La Rochefoucauld’s maxim—that you may hoodwink one person, but not all the world. The expression, ‘a TOT of spirits,’ is said to have had this respectable origin.
1900. R. H. SAVAGE, Brought to Bay, vii. Raoul told a tale of a repentant mother’s interest in the child which she had left as a wee TOT of two.
1901. W. S. WALKER, In the Blood, 294. Up came the children, wild-eyed, unkempt, dirty, ragged, yet brown, hardy, and active little TOTS.
3. See TOTTERY.
4. (common).—A bone: spec. (army) = kitchen refuse and (general) all kinds of waste, or marine store stuff. Hence TOTTING = bone-picking, dust-heap sifting; TOT-PICKER (or RAKER) = a scavenger. THE OLD TOTS = the 17th Lancers; the ‘Death or Glory’ Boys: in allusion to the regimental badge of ‘A Skull and Crossbones.’
1884. GREENWOOD, The True History of a Little Ragamuffin, xiv. “P’r’aps he’s goin’ A-TOTTIN’,” (picking up bones,) said Ripston.
1899. H. WYNDHAM, The Queen’s Service, 22. Anything … left on the TOT, or bone, is the recognised perquisite of the orderly-man.
Verb. (colloquial).—(1) To count; to reckon: also TO TOT UP (or TOTE). Also (2) = to wager all: cf. TOTE infra. Hence as subs. = an exercise in addition; TOT-BOOK = a book containing examples for practice; THE TOTE (or THE WHOLE TOTE) = all, everything; TO TOTE FAIR = to reckon accurately: hence (South and Western American) = to act honestly; to PLAY THE GAME (q.v.).
1766. H. BROOKE, The Fool of Quality, ii. 211. These TOTTED together will make a pretty beginning of my little project.
1852. M. W. SAVAGE, Reuben Medlicott (1864), III. ii. ‘One thousand eight hundred,’ said Hyacinth, TOTTING his entries.
1856. THACKERAY, Sketches and Travels in London, ‘A Night’s Pleasure,’ v. He has five glasses of whisky-and-water every night—seventeen hundred and twenty-five goes of alcohol in a year; we TOTTED it UP one night at the bar. Ibid. (1860–3), The Roundabout Papers, xix. The last two TOT UP the bill.
1877. Chicago Tribune [BARTLETT]. The predicament [of assassination] in Texas can be avoided by always ‘TOTING FAIR’ with everybody. Indeed, if you TOTE FAIR, you need TOTE no weapons; that is, you can go unarmed.
1895. Notes and Queries, 2 S. viii. 338. I have frequently heard in Lincolnshire the phrase, ‘Come, TOTE IT UP, and tell me what it comes to.’
1896. The Athenæum, No. 3268, 757. Graduated Exercises in Addition (TOTS and Cross TOTS, Simple and Compound). By W. S. Beard.
