English Explanatory Dictionary

snitch

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To inform on someone, especially in betrayal of others.
  2. To contact or cooperate with the police for any reason.
  3. To steal, quickly and quietly.
noun
  1. A thief.
  2. An informer, one who betrays their group.
  3. A nose.
  4. A tiny morsel.
  5. A ball used in the sport of Quidditch: the Golden Snitch.

Pronunciation

/snɪt͡ʃ/ en-us-snitch.ogg

Word forms

snitch snitches snitching snitched

Etymology

Origin uncertain. Perhaps an alteration of Middle English snacche (“a trap, snare”), snacchen (“to seize (prey)”, whence modern English snatch). Compare also Middle English snik snak (“a sudden blow, snap”). Alternatively, perhaps from a dialectal variant of sneak, from Middle English sniken, from Old English snīcan (“to creep; crawl”). More at sneak.

Synonyms

nick pilfer pocket grass up rat out drop a dime filch pincher mole quisling rat stool pigeon sneck filcher grass schnozz bite snap snippock

Derived words

antisnitching dry snitch snitchee snitcher snitch-jacket snitch up antisnitch bibliosnitch nonsnitch snitch bitch snitches get stitches snitches get stitches and wind up in ditches snitchy
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on S Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary