fink
/fɪŋk
/North American informal
noun
1An unpleasant or contemptible person.But what makes the documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room more riveting than anything Hollywood could dream up is all the damning footage those deluded finks left behind....
- You are a rat fink who should be tarred and feathered.
- And while we're talking definitions, perhaps the five-star fink who took my display would like to brush up on the definition of good citizenship.
1.1A person who informs on people to the authorities: he was assumed by some to be the management’s fink...
- I'm not a rat fink squealer! You think I'm going to tell you anything that would put my friends at risk?
- The social set is torn between pegging him as a total rat fink or a noble whistle-blower.
- What a fink. I can't believe he practically put the candy in my pockets and now he's taking me down with him.
1.2 dated A strike-breaker.And a little blond feller, I don't know who he was, yelled, ‘Hey, there's a fink here, starting to move goods!’...
- There were a few door guards to protect the ‘finks’.
- We took some of our best militant workers, entered the plant and drove the finks out.
verb [no object]
1 (fink on) Inform on (someone) to the authorities: there was no shortage of people willing to fink on their neighbours...
- Charged with obscenity, the 60-year-old professor not only fearfully complied with the cops but immediately finked on two friends.
- Padre Amaro, the young saving grace reformer, is in actuality a power mad vacuum, able to use a nubile young woman to satisfy his carnal desires as he finks on those within his order who would do the same.
- On the other hand, you don't want to die - and nobody will ever know that you finked on your friends.
2 (fink out) Fail to do something promised or expected: administration officials had finked out we felt like he finked out on us...
- Of an initial infusion of five million dollars, $250,000 per worm has been assigned as bounty to whoever finks out the authors.
- Candice almost finks out of helping by saying she's ‘got to work with anorexics.’
- He was supposed to come by last night, but he finked out for some reason.
2.1Cease to function: your immune system begins finking out and you get sick...
- It seems to get through syncing with the Address Book before it finks out.
- He said if it finked out again, they'd fix it again.
- The last thing I want is to wake up my kid, take her to the neighbors, drive 45 minutes to the Birth Center, stay up until 4 am and then just have to come home because my body finks out again.
Origin
Late 19th century: of unknown origin; perhaps from German, literally 'finch', but also a pejorative term. Students started to refer to non-members of fraternities as finks, probably by association with the freedom of wild birds as opposed to caged ones. The term was later generalized to denote those not belonging to organizations such as trade unions.