Etymology 1

Noun

1. A type of hat with no brim.
   • 1903—Janet Elder Rait, Alison Howard, Archibald Constable & Co., page 273,

     "Because Esmé said she was going out this afternoon to choose a new toque, and she hoped I should like it, and I’m not quite sure what it is, or where she'll wear it. Do you mind explaining?"

     "Not at all. A toque is that which if it had strings would be a bonnet, and if it had brim, would be a hat. It is worn on the head."

     "Thanks, now I know where I am," said the vicar of St. Machars, with a sigh of relief.

   • 1932—Vyvyan Holland, translator, The Strange River by Julien Green, Harper & Brothers, page 180,

     She drank a glass of wine mixed with water, took off her felt toque and her shoes, and slid beneath the red eiderdown.

   • 1957—Samuel Beckett, "Endgame",

     In a dressing-gown, a stiff toque on his head, a large blood-stained handkerchief over his face, a whistle hanging from his neck, a rug over his knees, thick socks on his feet, Hamm seems to be asleep.

2. A tall white hat with no brim of the sort worn by chefs
   • 1999—Michael Ruhlman, The Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute of America, Owl Books, ISBN 0805061738, page 154,

     Chef Felder was in her early forties, slender, with short wavy brown hair, almost all of which could be contained within her toque.

   • 2000—Jerrilyn Farmer, Killer Wedding, HarperCollins, ISBN 0380795981, page 103,

     When I came to the back of a man's head, wearing a toque, I knew I'd spotted my quarry.

     "Chef Reynoso?"

   • 2004—Laura Levine, Killer Blonde, Kensington Books, ISBN 0758201621, page 114,

     Minutes later, a red-faced man in a chef's toque approached our table.

3. A chef.
   • 2007—October, Nicole Berrie, "Green Eggs and Sam", in Elle, page 360,

     Sam Mason first grabbed the spotlight as the pastry chef ... for being the most rock 'n' roll toque in town.

Etymology 2

Noun

1. A knitted hat, usually conical but of varying shape, often woolen, and sometimes topped by a pom-pom or tassel.
   • 1998, Douglas Coupland, Girlfriend in a Coma, ch 1:

     Such is the demented nature of the universe that I was too weak to properly respond to my being hit on by carloads of Betties and Veronicas—all except for the cheeky Cheryl Anderson who gave me ‘manual release’ the day I lost my eye-brows, followed by a flood of tears and the snapping of Polaroids in which I wear a knit toque. Gush gush.