snitch
snitch Lexical Profile
snitch Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A person who secretly informs on someone else to an authority figure, especially in betrayal of a peer group (informal and derogatory).
"Nobody in the neighborhood wanted to talk to the investigators for fear of being labeled a snitch."
• verb
To secretly inform on someone to a person in authority (informal).
"He promised his classmates that he would never snitch on them to the principal."
To steal or take something quickly and surreptitiously, especially an item of small value (informal).
"The boy tried to snitch a warm cookie from the cooling rack when his mother looked away."
Word Nuance & Usage
"Snitch" is an informal, strongly pejorative term implying a betrayal of trust among peers, contrasting with the neutral or official term "informant" and the positive civic term "whistleblower".
• Rhymes for snitch
Word Origin & Etymology
First recorded in late 17th-century British underworld slang as a noun meaning 'the nose' (from which the phrase 'to turn snitch' evolved to mean turning informer), likely related to 'snout' or 'snatch'.