Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To toot softly and repeatedly, as on a flute.
- v. Informal To walk or drive in a leisurely manner; amble: spent the morning tootling around town.
- n. The act or sound of tooting softly and repeatedly, as on a flute.
- tootle off Informal To depart; go.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To toot gently or repeatedly; especially, to produce a succession of weak modulated sounds upon a flute.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To toot gently, repeatedly, or continuously, on a wind instrument, as a flute; also, to make a similar noise by any means.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the sound of casual playing on a musical instrument
- v. play (a musical instrument) casually
Etymologies
- Frequentative of toot. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Comforting to know that I'm not the only one to find this tough, although it's dispiriting to know that some bright bunny will tootle along saying;”
“Until then the new carriers can tootle around carrying helicopters, but as instruments of power projection they will be about as much use as a chocolate fire-guard.”
The Wall Street Journal: Cameron's Defense Cuts Reveal a U.K. Preparing to do Less With Less
“I'd tootle a trumpet, but showing off isn't Radioplayer's point, it being one of those online services that's so user-friendly it's as though it's always been there.”
The Guardian: Rewind radio: Radioplayer; Ken Bruce; Jeremy Vine – review
“When driving, do you flash your high beams and tootle your horn before overtaking?”
“For fresh air, I may tootle along to an Apple Store, where I'll feel verily honoured if I'm in a shorter queue to give them my money more quickly for a machine that will sync up with all the applications mentioned above.”
The Guardian: Grace Dent's TV OD: All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace
“So off I would tootle to write a bit of colour at the Open Championship.”
The Guardian: Back in the swing at the Open again thanks to cricket's silly season
“It even inspired Eva to take out her tin whistle and tootle for a while.”
“There was no way she could do more than tootle on it.”
“The one you posted is almost like some of those Chinese translations "blow horn loudly" becomes "tootle with vigor", for example you see in Reader's Digest or something.”
“Abney Park at Hell's Kitchen in Tacoma gaaneden came over to my place around 4: 30, so that she didn't need to tootle over from Renton during rush hour traffic.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘tootle’.
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[Open] Frequentative
“A verb which denotes the frequent occurrence or repetition of an action, as . . . waggle from wag.” — Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia.
Other examples include bobble (bob), bustle (b...dartle, stutter, agitate, dabble, waggle, aid, argue, daunt, expect, excite, espouse, dictate and 77 more...
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Time for a new list!
abrupt, erupt, rupture, sync, appropinquity, heterochromia, homochromatic, monochromatic, willy nilly, nitty gritty, kowtow, wonton and 455 more...
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arby's words
me default
shirty, kerfuffle, tenterhooks, susurrus, palimpsest, crimson, rufous, cicatrix, crepuscular, carapace, quaff, exanimate and 239 more...
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jmjarmstrong's list
Words that I used to know.
geloscopy, hunker, willy nilly, harum scarum, whacko, meh, nork, misunderestimate, atrabiliousness, luftmensch, auxanometer, hyperhedonia and 1948 more...
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joshleejosh's Words
inchoate, garner, oft, hydrocephalitic, twee, dorktacular, tic, discourse, coded, avuncular, maleficent, saguaro and 45 more...
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step lightly
ecossaise, sashay, prance, varsovienne, badinage, vellicate, ectomorphic, spiccato, libant, volant, voltigeur, saltation and 6 more...
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Rutherford's Words
Tweets
Looking for tweets for tootle.
jmjarmstrong JM bemoans the under use of the good word 'tootle'. Feb 1, 2009