snitch
/snɪtʃ
/informal
verb
1 [with object] Steal: he snitched the umbrella for when he went fishing figurative she was snitching a look out of the window...
- After all, these nightly visitors aren't there to snitch snapdragons or pilfer peas.
- Then the tantrums for not getting the right colour - or a sibling snitching the only one that was wanted - and so on.
- So, I snitched a pack, and a spare lighter, and repaired to the study.
2 [no object] Inform on someone: she wouldn’t tell who snitched on me...
- The audience hooted and hollered… and I looked around for those awful, horrible 13-year-old baseball playing boys, who had obviously snitched on us.
- If it's any consolation to you, you haven't snitched on anyone.
- What's more, officials have handed out around 2,000 yuan in rewards to people snitching on illegal sites.
noun
An informer: they thought he was a plant or a snitch...
- Well, being a snitch or an informant does not make you martyr or mean that you are really copping out.
- He said ‘You know what they do to any narcs, snitches, or informants even remotely implicated in the evidence?’
- They rely mostly on snitches for their information.
Origin
Late 17th century: of unknown origin.
nark from mid 19th century:
The original meaning of nark was ‘an annoying or troublesome person’, a sense which survives in Australia and New Zealand, and in the verb nark, ‘to annoy’. The word is from Romany nok or nak, ‘nose’. Snout and snitch (L17th, of unknown origin) are other words that mean both ‘nose’ and ‘informer’, and the word nosy itself implies an inappropriate interest in other people's business.
Rhymes
- ratiné
- ratio
- ratiocinate
- ratiocination
- ratiocinative
- ratiocinatively
- ratiocinator
- ratiocinatory
- ratio cognoscendi
- ratio decidendi
- ratio detector
- ratioed
- ratio essendi
- ratio existendi
- ratioing
- ratiometer
- ratio meter
- ratiomorphic
- ratiomorphous
- ration
- rationability
- rationable
- rational
- Rational Christian
- rational costume