Mark in Scranton, Pennsylvania, calls about a phrase he heard on an old detective show: drop a dime. It means “to inform on someone” or “tip off the police,” and comes from the practice of literally dropping a dime into a payphone to make a 10-cent...
Pickthank is an archaic, literary word for a person who curries favor by informing against someone else. The term goes back at least to 1460. Noah Webster defined a pick-thank as “a whispering parasite” or “an officious fellow.” It overlaps with...
smalls n.— «Although a cliché, it has long been an article of faith among the nation’s “gentleman” gangsters that Smalls single-handedly destroyed an unwritten code with his betrayal. Perhaps unsurprisingly, “Smalls” has become gangland slang for a...
poop butt n.— «The most severe threat to any adolescent drug user is the “snitch,” or the “loud mouth poop butt.” Anyone perceived as a potential informer will be isolated from the mainstream of adolescent drug use.» —“Recruitment Into Drug Use” by...
