Snitch

Pronunciation

• IPA: /snɪtʃ/
• Rhymes: -ɪtʃ

Origin

Origin uncertain. Perhaps an alteration of snatch, or a dialectal variant of sneak.

Full definition of snitch

Verb

1. (transitive) To steal, quickly and quietly.
2. (transitive) To inform on.
3. (slang, transitive) To contact or cooperate with the police for any reason.

Noun

1. A thief.
2. An informer, usually one who betrays his group.
3. (British) A nose.
• 1897, W.S. Maugham, , chapter 1'Yah, I wouldn't git a second-'and dress at a pawnbroker's!''Garn!' said Liza indignantly. 'I'll swipe yer over the snitch if yer talk ter me. ... "
• 1960, Barbara Wright (tr.), Zazie in the metro, He added in conclusion that he strongly disliked the police coming and sticking its nose into his affairs and, since the horror which such actions inspired in him was not far from making him wish to vomit, he extracted from his pocket a silken square of the colour of the lilac flower (the one that isn’t white) but impregnated with Barbouze, the Fior perfume, and with it dabbed his snitch.
• 1978, Brenda R. Silver, Virginia Woolf icon, On one level clearly emblematic of her class status, “she’d have really looked down her snitch at me”), Virginia Woolf's nose, both Bennett and his audience would know, signifies as well the far more frightening power, the phallic power, attributed to women, strong women in particular.
• 1994, Christine Marion Fraser, Noble Beginnings, ‘Yes, I’m a witch! I wiggle my snitch!...’
• 1999, September 27, "billy", Re: Babies Having Babies, Bluenoze: Blow your nose to clear your snitch of whatever it is you've been snorting and read the postings again.
• 1999, March 26, G Greenway, Re: aah-cho!!, Question: do benign bacteria live in one's snitch and keep the other, nastier ones at bay ?
• 2001, July 27, catmandoo, Re: Please help me to be 'correct'., Have a perpetual dew drop hanging from your snitch

Synonyms

• (informer) grass, mole, rat, stool pigeon