Dime Out or Drop a Dime

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Connie.

Hi, Connie, where are you calling from?

I am calling from the New River Marine Corps Air Station in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

Well, nice to have you on the show.

Hi, well, as I’m sure you both know, every branch of the military has its own jargon and phrases and whatnot that you hear all the time.

There’s one phrase in particular that I’ve only really heard my husband and his Marine buddies use over the years, but I don’t know the origin of it.

And in fact, I kind of suspect it might not even be a military term, but I am just curious if you might be able to help me out and tell me where it came from.

Sure, we’ll try.

Okay, well, the phrase is to dime someone out, or they might say to drop a dime on someone.

And the context is always the same.

It means that they’re getting someone in trouble.

Someone is being tattled on, if you will.

And to me, that almost sounds like something more like a gangster would use or something, you know, to drop a dime on that guy.

But I’ve only heard it among my husband and his Marine buddies.

Well, Connie, your instincts are correct.

It goes well beyond the military.

Actually, quite simple.

It has to do with using a payphone back in the day when a telephone call just cost 10 cents.

You’ve used a payphone, right?

I am definitely old enough to have used payphones and to remember when they cost a dime.

Okay, very good.

Well, that’s exactly it.

Then you know about going into a phone booth and dropping that dime, and you make a phone call.

And it has to do with slipping away in the night or slipping away secretly to make a phone call.

If you’re going to tattle on somebody, call the police, you’re not going to do it from your landline at home.

You’re going to sneak out to a phone booth.

Muffle your voice maybe, do it at the late hours somewhere in a dark corner.

Okay.

And tattle.

And the interesting thing about dropping a dime, it’s funny how in old ads and stories from the old days when payphones were a thing, how often that phrase is used to drop a dime, just simply meaning to call with no slang intent and nothing about snitching or narking or ratting somebody out or being a fink.

Oh, interesting. So has it just kind of slipped out of the vernacular just because no one, number one, I don’t suppose, even if there are payphones, I’m sure they don’t cost a dime anymore.

Yeah.

Well, it became specialized in the 50s and 60s as when you dropped a dime on somebody, it just started only to mean that you were calling the cops to snitch on somebody, to be a stool pigeon, so to speak.

That’s really interesting.

Right, moving farther and farther away from its original meaning.

Okay.

All right.

How did we do, Connie?

Well, thank you.

Sure.

Our pleasure.

Thanks for calling.

Have a good day.

Bye-bye.

All right.

Thanks for calling.

You know, Grant, when I was a teenager, my mother never let me get out of the house without my emergency dime.

I remember when I moved to New York City in the early 90s, pay phones were still a thing, and I always made sure to leave the house with quarters just in case.

You never knew.

Yeah.

Because you would check your voicemail.

You would call it remotely and check your voicemail.

Oh, man.

Strange days.

Yeah, even before the days of voicemail.

I mean, I remember carrying a dime in my shoe between my sock and my shoe just in case, you know.

A little mad money, we called it, too.

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