Dime Out or Drop a Dime

To dime someone out, just like to drop a dime (on someone), is to nark or tattle, common in the days when it cost ten cents to use a pay phone and snitch. Of course, that’s when pay phones were used at all. This is part of a complete episode.

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  • Recently heard you guys talking about “dropping a dime”, so the phrase jumped out at me as I was reading.
    The book was Fundraising the Dead by Sheila Connolly. The historical society’s development director says to the FBI agent “You mean, you want me to go back to work and wait for someone to drop the dime on me? Is that the right term?” copyright 2010

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