squeak n.
1. (also squeek) an informer, esp. one who turns informer to save themselves after being arrested.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: Squeak, a thief, who when taken up confesses and impeaches the rest of his companions. | |
| Dict. Sl. and Cant. | |
| Flash Dict. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Tomboy (1952) 174: I happen to know you’re a goddam squeak. | |
| ‘Johnny Slice’s Stoolie’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 81: We hadn’t pulled anything [...] for fear the squeek would blow to the bulls. | |
| Layer Cake 51: He’s always had a streak of the squeak in him. |
2. a piece of information passed over to the police.
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Australian (Sydney) 13 Feb. 3/4: [N]othing, in fact, being a surer sign of want of true game, than raising a squeak about any theft whatever. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Ulysses 469: The squeak is out. A split is gone for the flatties. | |
| Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 165: Just at present there is a ‘squeak’; we’ve lost thirty-five quid in notes. | |
| Phenomena in Crime 94: A ‘squeak’ respecting the ‘czars’ of the dope racket. | |
| No Hiding Place! 192/2: The Squeak is Out. The police have information. | |
| (con. c.1910) in Samuel East End Und. 82: The squeak came from a shopkeeper. |
3. (Aus.) an escape.
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 80: Squeak, [...] an escape. |
4. (US) a remark, a comment.
| ‘Words & Music’ in Top-Notch 15 June 🌐 When a girl has to measure out ribbons all day at Flooker’s Department Store she hasn’t got any time to delve into the squeaks of song writers. |
5. (US police) a complaint.
| N.Y. Times 15 Dec. SM16: Squeak: complaint. |
6. (US) a singer.
| Early Havoc 16: ‘We got enough squeaks dancing right out there in the contest [...] Ain’t it great that poor little bastard can still squeak out a song’. |
In phrases
(UK Und.) no complaints.
| Swell’s Night Guide 40: Madame (that is to say, the bawd-mistress-general), are [sic] downy donnas, and tumble a few, and no squeaks. |
to betray to the authorities.
| (con. 1910s) Hell’s Kitchen 84: The crooks used to wonder how the ‘D’s’ (detectives) got their information, and who was ‘putting in the squeak’ (supplying information). | |
| Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 8: Putting in the squeak: Informing the Police. | |
| Sharpe of the Flying Squad 252: I [...] came back to town to find out who had put the squeak in. | |
| Caught (2001) 74: Most likely someone put the squeak in, told them. | |
| No Hiding Place! 191/2: Put in the Squeak. Inform . | |
| (con. WW2) London E1 (2012) 236: ‘Suppose someone put the squeak in to the Law’. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
(US black) a violin.
| Lucifer with a Book 63: I notice ya got a violin. I mean a squeakbox. |