Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. an informer.

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. (3rd edn) 244: squealer, an informer.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1879		Chicago Trib. 12 June 6/2: Pete Stevens — he was a squealer.
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 397: SQUEALER: one who gives away the gang.
1909		I.L. Nascher Wretches of Povertyville 156: His reputation as a ‘squealer’ or informer had preceded him.
1916		J. Lait ‘Charlie the Wolf’ Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 25: Kelly and Kiernan had questioned every thief and ‘squealer’ in town.
1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 366: ‘Why, you squealer,’ he sneers. ‘How much did you get from the Revenue agents for informing on me?’.
1929		W.R. Burnett Little Caesar (1932) 84: A fine bunch of yellow bellies and squealers I’m mixed up with.
1935		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 10: Squealer: Police informant.
1938		G. Greene Brighton Rock (1943) 245: You bloody squealer, Dallow.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 217: Sure, ya stinkin’ squeala, I’m the guy shot out ya eye.
1959		A. Zugsmith Beat Generation 138: You have to cover up for your squealers, don’t you?
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 20: ‘Why, you stoolpigeon,’ I said hurt-like, ‘you Puerto Rican squealer.’.
1978		H.C. Bosman Street-Women in Gray Theatre One 15: I was sorry for him because he was white livered and a squealer and with no guts.
1989		R.E. Tangney Other Days Around Me 91: It was an invitation to become a squealer, a copper’s nark, to sell Danny down the river.
1991		B. Quinn Smokey Hollow 47: Go away, you little squealer, I’ll break your neck.
2001		(con. 1981) A. Wheatle East of Acre Lane 32: Don’t trus’ de people in dis estate. Some of dem are squealers.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 175/2: squealer n. 1 = nark.
2008		(ref. to 1971) F. Dennis ‘Old Bailey’ Homeless in my Heart 184: Where a squealer finds ground glass / Has sweetened his morning brew.
2019		S.M. Jones Lives Laid Away [ebook] ‘Bikers don’t like squealers’.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 157: ‘You are my personal snitch, rat, stool pigeon, and squealer’.
2021		P Howard Braywatch 90: ‘[Y]eah, I did teach him how to throw a punch, the little focking squealer’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 28: Squealers can only squeal if they have the information.

2. a complainer.

1878		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 27 Apr. 6/3: A divy is arranged and the squealer is not on deck when the case is called.
1887		G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 282: A kicker, or squealer, always speaks of the money he has lost, against any game, as his money, while the gambler considers the money he loses [...] as lost.
1902		A.D. McFaul Ike Glidden 69: If it’s anything I hate it’s a squealer or a kicker [DA].
1913		Truth (Perth) 8 Nov. 1/6: Now that the ‘squealers’ and the ‘Little Hostralians’ have ceased to chant their dirge of horror at the replica of an old-man kangaroo upon the stamp, there will be new wrath created because the same Australian chap has dared to suggest that a dingo find place on Our Battleship.
1915		Van Loan ‘One-Thirty-Three – Ringside’ in Taking the Count 71: ‘You’re one swell manager, you are!’ ‘And you’re a grand squealer,’ said Avery.
1921		(con. WWI) E. Lynch Somme Mud 66: It’s their baptism of fire and they’re nervous, but they’re not squealers [...] they slog on.

3. (Aus.) a bookmaker.

1904

Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 17 Feb. 1/1: Wishing clients were ‘topped,’ or ‘paralysed’ are among the mildest remarks of these ‘squealers’ who pay out with the worst of bad grace.

4. (US Und.) a pack of Jack Rose cigars [after the witness of the same name who acted as informer in the Rosenthal case].

a.1940

D. Gilbert Amer. Vaudeville: Its Life and Times (1968) 227: A five cent package of Jack Rose little cigars (later called ‘squealers,’ after the witness by the same name who informed in the Rosenthal case).

5. (N.Z. prison) the guardhouse [[poss. from the idea that this is where a squealer [...] goes to pass on his information].

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 175/2: squealer n. 2 (the squealer) the prison officials’ office, the guardhouse.