Nose / To Nose / Turn Nose: Nose is a 1789 word for a snitch to nose or turn nose, both circa 1809, meant to give evidence or inform.Ģ1. The term was obsolete by 1940, but the word "nark" lives on.Ģ0. " - "Wot?" answered Bill, "narkin' dues is it?" - Josh nodded. Presently, he said: "I bin put away this time. Narking Dues: Partridge says this British phrase is "used when someone has been, or is, laying information with the police." It appeared in 1896's A Child of the Jago: Lemon: A 1934 American term meaning "one who turns State's evidence" because he has "turn sour on his confederates."ġ9. Knock-Down: Giving information to police, circa 1910.ġ8. "Come grass" is also used to describe someone who informs to the police.ġ7. Grass: This word-short for grasshopper (circa 1920), rhyming on copper-dates back to the 1930s. "By contemptuous euphemism not unrelated to thingamyjig."ġ6. Fizgig / Fizzgig: This slang term for an informer, circa 1910, may have derived from fizgig, Australian for "fishing spear." "Often shorted to fiz(z)," Partridge writes. Finger Louse: This American term, dating back to the 1930s, is an elaboration of finger, meaning to take the fingerprints of a person.ġ5. Baker in 1945's The Australian Language.ġ4. "A man that drops information also, he causes men to 'drop' or 'fall' (be arrested)," notes Sidney J. Dropper Man: An Australian term, circa 1910, for a habitual informer to the police. Conk: As a noun, conk dates back to the early 1800s and means "a thief who impeaches his accomplices a spy informer, or tell tale." As a verb, it means to inform to the police, and was often verbally called "conking it." Conk was obsolete by 1900.ġ3. "Come it strong" meant to do a thing vigorously, and according to Egan's Grouse in 1823, "They say of a thief, who has turned evidence against his accomplices, that he is coming all he knows, or that he comes it as strong as a hor se."ġ2. Come it / Come it as strong as a horse: Come it (or, verbally, coming it) dates back to 1812, and means to be an informer. Come Copper: A 1905 term for someone who gave information to the police.ġ1. Cocked Hat: Another Pacific Coast rhyme on rat, circa 1910, that means "informer to the police."ġ0. Crysler: A punny reference (of American origin) to Chrysler cars meaning "a squealer a traitor a coward," according to Leverage's "Dictionary of the Underworld."ĩ. Baker's "'Australian' Rhyming Argot in the American Underworld," which appeared in American Speech in October 1944.Ĩ. Cabbage Hat: A mostly Pacific Coast term for an informer, circa 1910 a rhyming on rat, according to D.W. It was common slang by 1890, as noted in Farmer & Henley's Slang and its Analogues.ħ. Brandon's 1839 book Poverty, Mendicity and Crime, and J.C. Blue: A verb meaning "to blew it to inform (to the police)," according to the H. Blobber: According to Henry Leverage's "Dictionary of the Underworld" from Flynn's magazine, this is an American term for an informer from early 1925.Ħ. Partridge cites November 8, 1836's The Individual: "Ven I'm corned, I can gammon a gentry cove, Come the fawney-rig, the figging-lay, and never vish to bleat." The term was obsolete in Britain by 1890, but as of 1920 was a current slang term in the U.S.ĥ. When informants bleat, they give information to the police. Bleat: Lambs aren't the only ones who do this. Beefer: In the 1899 glossary Tramping with Tramps, Josiah Flynt writes that a beefer is "One who squeals on, or gives away, a tramp or criminal." By the 1930s, the word-American in origin-had moved from tramps to become slang for police and journalists, according to Partridge.Ĥ. Bark: Similar to "to squeak" and "to squeal," bark, as defined by the 1889 glossary Police! , meant "to inform (to the police)." It was obsolete by 1930.ģ. Abaddon: This term dates to circa 1810-80 and means "a thief who informs on his fellow rogues." It comes from the Hebrew abaddon, a destroyer.Ģ. But Eric Partridge’s Dictionary of the Underworld, published first in 1949 with a second edition in 1961, shows that in the Cant language of the underworld-which first appeared in Britain in the 16th century and the United States in the 18th-criminals have many more names for snitches. We've arranged the synonyms in length order so that they are easier to find.We’ve used the term “rat” to refer to an informer since approximately 1910. Synonyms, crossword answers and other related words for INFORMERWe hope that the following list of synonyms for the word informer will help you to finish your crossword today. INFORMER 'INFORMER' is a 8 letter word starting with I and ending with R Crossword clues for 'INFORMER' Clue