tootle

[ toot-l ]

verb (used without object)

, too·tled, too·tling.

1. to toot gently or repeatedly on a flute or the like.
2. to move or proceed in a leisurely way.

noun

1. the sound made by tooting on a flute or the like.

tootle

¹

/ ˈtuːtəl /

verb

1. to toot or hoot softly or repeatedly

   the flute tootled quietly

noun

1. a soft hoot or series of hoots

tootle

²

/ ˈtuːtəl /

verb

1. intr to go, esp by car

noun

1. a drive, esp a short pleasure trip

Derived Forms

• ˈtootler, noun

Other Words From

• tootler noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of tootle¹

First recorded in 1810–20; toot ¹ + -le

Word History and Origins

Origin of tootle¹

C19: from toot ¹

Origin of tootle²

C19: from tootle ¹, imitative of the horn of a car

Example Sentences

Upstairs, Zella Powers, 85, worked on one of the library’s public computers, just reading the news, tootling around, one of a few dozen people a day who come to use the library’s internet.

From Seattle Times

"They're more than happy for him to be tootling along behind them in his chair."

From BBC

And he gamely rents a golf cart and tootles around the Villages, the enormous senior housing community in the middle of Florida that’s beginning to fill up with you-know-whoomers.

From New York Times

Angela Lansbury is a tweedy country eccentric in wartime England, tootling around on a bronchitic sidecar motorbike and receiving mysterious parcels from a professor in London.

From Los Angeles Times

Its final stretch, tootling and pounding over an insistent drone, may be a deathbed revelation, as Murphy belts, “Go into the light!”

From New York Times

Related Words

• blare
• hiss