Green’s Dictionary of Slang

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

1718		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.
1749		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.
1789		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.
1801		Sporting Mag. Nov. XIX 88/1: Nadin asked him, how he knew the man had snitched him?
1812		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.
1823		‘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.
1830		W.T. Moncrieff Heart of London II i: A rank mouth like you – you’d snitch on anyone for a glass of rum.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 73/1: Oh, maister [...] ye’ll no ‘snitch’ on me nor Wattie?
1873		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].
1907		D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 14 Sept. 12/1: ‘If Snarley snitches — I’m done!’.
1909		W.M. Raine Brand Blotters (1912) 169: ‘Say, Jimmie, C’n you keep a secret?’ ‘Sure. Course I can.’ ‘Won’t ever snitch?’.
1911		L. Pound ‘A Second Word-List From Nebraska’ in DN III:vii 547: snitch, v. To tattle. ‘A good fellow will not snitch.’.
1917		F. Packard Adventures of Jimmie Dale (1918) I ii: Metzer was fixin’ ter snitch on him ter-night.
1920		F. Packard White Moll 34: I’m not going to snitch on anybody else just because I’m through myself.
1926		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’.
1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 49: She’d snitch and give him away.
1953		T. Runyon In For Life 237: Convicts saw him walking in his cell and snitched him off.
1955		‘Blackie’ Audett Rap Sheet 98: I knowed only one thing – Edwards had got scared and snitched.
1963		C. Cooper Jr ‘Yet Princes Follow’ in Black! (1996) 194: I hate you like Hitler, man, but I wouldn’t snitch out on ya.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 161: Snitches snitch just like snakes bite.
1973		J. Wambaugh Onion Field 316: ‘Look at this and see what a snivelin rat he really is. [...] Look how he snitched me off!’ .
1976		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.
1977		B. Jackson Killing Time 223: Somebody snitch you out?
1977		E. Bunker Animal Factory 47: Whaddya think — I was gonna snitch on you?
1981		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.
1985		N. Pileggi Wiseguy (2001) 139: Even the hacks who [...] couldn’t be bribed would never snitch on the guys who did.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 174: You didn’t have qualms about snitching off Rooski.
1992		K. Lette Llama Parlour 232: The ‘cockatoo’ had scarpered, and the whole kit and kaboodle had got snitched.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 347: You gonna snitch me out?
2000		W. Shaw Westsiders 252: Another student snitched on him for holding Keyna over the balcony.
2002		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.
2009		J. Stahl Pain Killers 17: What I wanted to ask was how much he got for snitching out visitors.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 165: Fearing the possible repercussions of snitching on a violent criminal.
2012		G. Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 176: Ward snitched us out to the law. I can’t believe it.
2013		J. Stahl Happy Mutant Baby Pills 23: After getting fired from my last job, when that guy Dreek snitched me off.
2016		Mother Jones July/Aug. 🌐 People think he’s a rat. Maybe they think he snitched on Brick to get away from him.
2017		1011 ‘Play for the Pagans’ 🎵 Run up in the shop and chopped my man / And he went and snitched to his mum.
2020		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’.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 255: The brer’s sister try snitch on her brother for a shooting.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 151: ‘Somebody snitched off your piece to Darryl Gates’.
2024		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.
2024		C. Stella Joey Piss Pot 229: Rapino always did his best to avoid providing someone with snitch ammunition that could be used against himself.

2. to stare at.

1834

‘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.

1911		L. Pound ‘A Second Word-List From Nebraska’ in DN III vii 547: snitch, v. To steal. ‘She snitched my belt pin.’.
1917		A. Baer Giants in Hot Water 23 May [synd. col.] The A’s snitched a game from Cleveland.
1923		Wodehouse Leave it to Psmith (1993) 593: They can’t say a thing without telling everyone they snitched the stuff first.
1928		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.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 193: Nobody snitched Angela from you during that Cannes trip.
a.1948		(con. early 1930s) C. McKay Harlem Glory (1990) 23: Why did you snitch one of my undies?
1953		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.
1969		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.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 115: I remember what happened to that sucker in the Bible that snitched a peep.
1971		Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves 182: Who can say that another Bingley may not come along and snitch it from the secretary’s room?
1986		L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 123: May God pity the poor fuckin’ fool who snitched as much as a dime.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 3. To steal.
2004		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.

1990

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