Green’s Dictionary of Slang

snitch v.

also snitch off, snitch on/upon, snitch out (on), snitch up
[snitch n.1 (2), i.e. one sticks one’s nose in]

1. to inform, to turn King’s/Queen’s evidence, to betray; thus snitching n.

[UK]C. Hitchin Conduct of Receivers and Thief-Takers 15: This Man was Snitcht, alias he went to pick a Gentleman’s Pocket, and the Gentleman felt him, and deliver’d him up to the Mob, to give him such Punishment as they think fit.
[UK]B.M. Carew ‘The Oath of the Canting Crew’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 50: Never blow the gab, or squeak; / Never snitch to bum or beak.
[UK]G. Parker Life’s Painter 142: If any of us was to come in by ourselves and should happen to take a rum snooze, you’d snitch upon us, and soon have the traps and fix us, in putting a lap-feeder in our sack, that you or your blowen had prig’d yourselves, though we should stand the frisk for it.
[UK]Sporting Mag. Nov. XIX 88/1: Nadin asked him, how he knew the man had snitched him?
[UK]Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 266: snitch to impeach, or betray your accomplices, is termed snitching upon them. A person who becomes king’s evidence on such an occasion, is said to have turned snitch; an informer, or tale-bearer, in general is called a snitch, or a snitching rascal, in which sense snitching is synonymous with nosing, or coming it.
[US]‘One Who Knows’ Inside Out; or, An Interior View of the N.-Y. State Prison 229: His kept mistress snitching (that is, informing) on him.
[UK]W.T. Moncrieff Heart of London II i: A rank mouth like you – you’d snitch on anyone for a glass of rum.
[UK]Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
[UK]Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 73/1: Oh, maister [...] ye’ll no ‘snitch’ on me nor Wattie?
[UK]Sl. Dict. 299: Snitch to give information to the police, to turn approver [i.e. one who proves or offers to prove another guilty, one who turns Queen’s/King’s evidence].
[UK]D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 14 Sept. 12/1: ‘If Snarley snitches — I’m done!’.
[US]W.M. Raine Brand Blotters (1912) 169: ‘Say, Jimmie, C’n you keep a secret?’ ‘Sure. Course I can.’ ‘Won’t ever snitch?’.
[US]L. Pound ‘A Second Word-List From Nebraska’ in DN III:vii 547: snitch, v. To tattle. ‘A good fellow will not snitch.’.
[US]F. Packard Adventures of Jimmie Dale (1918) I ii: Metzer was fixin’ ter snitch on him ter-night.
[US]F. Packard White Moll 34: I’m not going to snitch on anybody else just because I’m through myself.
[US]J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 126: That’s the type of thief that calls the police ‘a bunch of chumps,’ and goes to jail crying, ‘Somebody snitched’.
[US](con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 49: She’d snitch and give him away.
[US]T. Runyon In For Life 237: Convicts saw him walking in his cell and snitched him off.
[US]‘Blackie’ Audett Rap Sheet 98: I knowed only one thing – Edwards had got scared and snitched.
[US]C. Cooper Jr ‘Yet Princes Follow’ in Black! (1996) 194: I hate you like Hitler, man, but I wouldn’t snitch out on ya.
[US]M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 161: Snitches snitch just like snakes bite.
[US]J. Wambaugh Onion Field 316: ‘Look at this and see what a snivelin rat he really is. [...] Look how he snitched me off!’ .
Nth Arkansas Times (Fayetteville, AR) 27 Sept. 10/5: It began with a ‘hit’ attempt on an informer [...] who’d been snitching up bad guys.
[US]B. Jackson Killing Time 223: Somebody snitch you out?
[US]E. Bunker Animal Factory 47: Whaddya think — I was gonna snitch on you?
[US]J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 207: We’ll tell Whipdick Woofer the gook’s been positively snitched off by our number one anonymous informant as being the king pin importer of China white.
[US]N. Pileggi Wiseguy (2001) 139: Even the hacks who [...] couldn’t be bribed would never snitch on the guys who did.
[US]S. Morgan Homeboy 174: You didn’t have qualms about snitching off Rooski.
[UK]K. Lette Llama Parlour 232: The ‘cockatoo’ had scarpered, and the whole kit and kaboodle had got snitched.
[US]Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 347: You gonna snitch me out?
[US]W. Shaw Westsiders 252: Another student snitched on him for holding Keyna over the balcony.
[US]J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 258: Prison stories — that is, convict war stories — tend to have a common culprit [...] the Bitch Who Snitched Me Out.
[US]J. Stahl Pain Killers 17: What I wanted to ask was how much he got for snitching out visitors.
[US]A. Steinberg Running the Books 165: Fearing the possible repercussions of snitching on a violent criminal.
[US]G. Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 176: Ward snitched us out to the law. I can’t believe it.
[US]J. Stahl Happy Mutant Baby Pills 23: After getting fired from my last job, when that guy Dreek snitched me off.
[US]Mother Jones July/Aug. 🌐 People think he’s a rat. Maybe they think he snitched on Brick to get away from him.
1011 ‘Play for the Pagans’ 🎵 Run up in the shop and chopped my man / And he went and snitched to his mum.
[US]S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 190: ‘The other thing we don’t do in this family is run our mouths [...] And we never ever snitch on members of the family’.
[UK]G. Krauze What They Was 255: The brer’s sister try snitch on her brother for a shooting.
[US](con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 151: ‘Somebody snitched off your piece to Darryl Gates’.
[UK]J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 802: [W]ith our luck her phone would actually be working and she’d already be snitching us up.

2. to stare at.

[US]‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 69: One of the fellers began tu snitch the gineral with his single peeper.

3. to steal, to take; lit. and fig.

[US]L. Pound ‘A Second Word-List From Nebraska’ in DN III vii 547: snitch, v. To steal. ‘She snitched my belt pin.’.
A. Baer Giants in Hot Water 23 May [synd. col.] The A’s snitched a game from Cleveland.
[UK]Wodehouse Leave it to Psmith (1993) 593: They can’t say a thing without telling everyone they snitched the stuff first.
[US]M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 82: I did not mind the loss of the money so much as to be accused, wrongly, of snitching the diamond.
[UK]Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 193: Nobody snitched Angela from you during that Cannes trip.
[US](con. early 1930s) C. McKay Harlem Glory (1990) 23: Why did you snitch one of my undies?
[Aus]K. Tennant Joyful Condemned 166: He’s just one of those big he-men that go sneaking around the park waiting to snitch some chromo’s handbag.
[US]C. Himes Blind Man with a Pistol (1971) 137: The youths began darting in to loot, like sparrows snitching crumbs from under the beaks of larger birds.
[US]‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 115: I remember what happened to that sucker in the Bible that snitched a peep.
[UK]Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves 182: Who can say that another Bingley may not come along and snitch it from the secretary’s room?
[US]L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 123: May God pity the poor fuckin’ fool who snitched as much as a dime.
[Aus]Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 3. To steal.
J. Dailey Shifting Calder Wind 354: A couple of the older ranch hands stood guard at the beer kegs to make certain no youngsters snitched a taste.

4. (Aus.) to arrest.

[Aus]Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 2. To arrest.

In compounds

snitch game (n.)

(US und.) purse-snatching.

[US]Orlando Sentinel (FL) 3 July 5/1: Purse Snatching [...] This new ‘snitch game’ is practised by young adults and teen-agers in search of wallets.
snitch-off (n.) (also snitch-out)

(US Und.) an act of betrayal.

[US]T. Runyon In For Life 238: The snitch-offs came faster, too.
[US]J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 40: ‘[Ronald Reagan] hates the Reds. I’ll hit him up for some snitch-outs’.
snitch-pad (n.)

US blacka newspaper.

D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 10 May 11: Dig the heavy spiel these snitchpads are spreading.