squeal (on) v.
1. to own up.
Quarter Race in Kentucky and Other Sketches 45: I got his head under my arm an I made him squeal immediately. | ||
Dict. Americanisms (4th edn) 797: Squeal, [...] to ‘throw up the sponge’. | ||
Gay-cat 238: Gonna beef where it’s hid? Gonna squeal ef Slim’s boy’s got it or not? | ||
Dames Don’t Care (1960) 99: I can make her squeal the rest of the stuff about the counterfeitin’. | ||
Neon Wilderness (1986) 106: But sick as I was, I didn’t squeal about the four pennies. |
2. to complain.
Monmouth Democrat (Freehold, NJ) 21 Oct. 1/3: The ‘meek and innocent’ Staten Islanders, whom the [...] Mayor intends to make ‘squeal’. | ||
Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 139/1: I’ll taik kair ’e doan’t squeal anny abeowt it, else I’ll breeak ’is owl jaw fur ’im. | ||
Wanderings of a Vagabond 211: This is the division made, unless the ‘sucker’ happens to be some influential person, and fleeced while drunk, and who, when sober, will ‘squeal’ for his money. | ||
‘Chimmie Fadden in His New Joint’ 9 Apr. [synd. col.] ‘Who is squealing about de expense?’. | ||
Life In Sing Sing 262: I don’t squeal. I had a good run in ’Frisco and I’ve breathed easy ever since. | ||
‘The Man Who Can’t Go Back’ 2 Oct. [synd. col.] I’ve never sen him squeal / About his fate. | ||
Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Dec. 29/2: ‘This has cost enough to square the Legislature of the Noo York State, an’ I’m goin’ to squeal.’ He says: ‘For John the Baptist’s sake,’ he says, ‘don’t squeal yet. Gimme another pay.’ [...] ‘Then I squealed so that you could hear me in Texas.’. | ||
Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 11 Aug. 15/4: The possum never squealed either. It was one of the neatest jobs I ever ’andled. | ||
(con. 1900s) Elmer Gantry 152: I suppose you’ve gone squealing to your old man and the old woman! | ||
Flirt and Flapper 98: Flapper: He’s grateful to me [...] he’s never squealed once . | ||
Terre Haute Trib. (IN) 3 Oct. 10/4: You could hold this weasler to it, no matter how he squeals. | ||
Aussie Bull 6: My favourite bit of Bull is to encourage someone to ‘squeal’ about his job. |
3. to inform against one’s partners, esp. partners in crime.
, , | Sl. Dict. | |
Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 7 Sept. n.p.: He would squeal like a pig if the ‘collar’ was put on him. | ||
Memoirs of the US Secret Service 86: He located the ‘boodle,’ and ‘squealed’ on his pals. | ||
Glimpses of Gotham and City Characters 55/1: I would be a despicable wretch indeed to repay the courtesy which made the experience possible by ‘squealing’ on those I met. I believe they call it ‘squealing’. | ||
World (N.Y.) 30 June 10/4: If they don’t get a lawyer for me I’ll squeal on the whole business. | ||
Bulletin (Sydney) 2 Aug. 10/1: O Blessed Interpreter! / Scene – Suburban Police-court / [...] Witness: ‘Why, he meant he’d biff me if I squealed or turned dorg on him.’. | ||
Tramping with Tramps 392: beefer: one who ‘squeals’ on, or gives away, a tramp or criminal. | ||
Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Sept. 29/2: An’, roundin’ the kips, / Yer kin pump ‘em, an’ then / Yer off ter the demons / To sell what yer got, / When yer through / Wif a few / Ter squeal on an’ pot. | ||
Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 85: One of the gang had squealed on the big job in Frisco. | ||
The Web in Ten ‘Lost’ Plays (1995) 63: Yuh swear yuh won’t squeal on me? | ||
Adventures of Jimmie Dale (1918) I ix: The Gray Seal who [...] they had counted the most eminent among themselves, had squealed! | ||
Babbitt (1974) 191: If I catch you knocking me to any other firm, I’ll squeal all I know about you. | ||
‘A Nose for News’ in Goulart (1967) 214: It’s funny how fear will make a guy squeal on his own mother. | ||
Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 10: Squealing: Giving information to the police. | ||
Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 87: If my pal don’ get paid he will squeal. | ||
Harp in South 97: She had squealed on Delie Stock mainly because she had refused to sell her some wine. | ||
Man with the Golden Arm 287: Cats are all stooges anyhow [...] a dog’ll never squeal on a pal. | ||
Mad mag. June 12: Was you who squealed on me, / And sent me to the local pen. | ||
Crust on its Uppers 106: Dummies don’t squeal. | ||
How to Talk Dirty 10: Miss Bostaug hadn’t ‘squealed’ on me. | ||
Great Aust. Gamble 150: Long Henry persisted in his refusal to ‘squeal’. | ||
Start in Life (1979) 100: He’d been remanded in custody, which meant they were trying to make him squeal. | ||
(con. 1967) Welcome to Vietnam (1989) 9: The guy was macho. He didn’t squeal. | ||
(con. early 1950s) L.A. Confidential 50: But if you ask me to squeal on my brother officers, I’ll plead fucking amnesia. | ||
Vinnie Got Blown Away 146: But squeal the screws on some aggravation up the recess or bit of crack on visits, well out of order. | ||
NZEJ 13 35: squeal v.To inform upon — nark. | ‘Boob Jargon’ in||
Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 175/2: squeal v. to inform upon, to betray. | ||
🎵 If suttin get got I know my niggas won’t squeal. | ‘Live Corn’||
Lives Laid Away [ebook] ‘They see you gimping through the door and they’ll wonder how much you squealed’. | ||
May God Forgive 245: ‘Last thing they need is you hanging about, deciding to squeal one day’. | ||
Empty Wigs (t/s) 28: Squealers can only squeal if they have the information. |
4. to report a crime to the police or any other authority.
Nether Side of NY 21: [I]f a forger is content to cheat them out of small amounts they pocket the loss in silence, and never report the matter to the police at all [but] [s]ometimes the forgers strike so heavily that the bank forgets its caution and ‘squeals’ with exceeding liveliness. | ||
Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 27 Apr. 6/3: [He] came down loser and very sullen. He growled and then threatened to squeal if he didn’t get a part of the play returned. | ||
Lexow Report 38: Not only did they pay regular monthly sums for protection, but where victims ‘squealed’ the police, either ward or headquarter detectives, demanded one-half of the plunder. | ||
Forty Modern Fables 36: He was a Good Fellow and would not go and Squeal to the Faculty. | ||
Enemy to Society 211: Some of those fearless mutts who are ashamed to fight less than three at a time but start to ‘squeal’ the minute a copper taps them on the shoulder. | ||
(con. 1920s) Studs Lonigan (1936) 520: The tightening net of evidence. The blonde squealing. | Judgement Day in||
Queenslander (Brisbane) 2 July 4/4: So, out to crop the wisdom I did sow, And with much daring took a ‘gay’ in tow. / But this was all the harvest that I reaped, / I touch the ‘mug’ - he squeals - and in I go! | ||
Man From Clinkapella 9: Keep yer trap shut. If yer squeal about this, I’ll kick yer bloody guts in! | ‘The Load of Wood’ in||
Sat. Night and Sun. Morning 164: Then you’d squeal like a stuck pig. | ||
Return of the Hood 64: Stoolies who squeal to ingratiate themselves with the cops. | ||
Book of Irish Soldiers’ Jokes 12: Bandmaster: ‘Do you know Who Killed Cock Robin?’ Applicant: ‘I do. But I’d never squeal on a bird.’. | ||
Tourist Season (1987) 170: You weren’t thinking about squealing, were you? | ||
8 Ball Chicks (1998) 52: Satisfied the child wouldn’t squeal, Jade looked at Wanda accusingly. |
In compounds
(US) the law requiring parental notification when an underage girl applies for a prescription for contraceptives.
Dict. of Invective (1991) 372: We have challenged [the Reagan Administration’s] insistence on promulgating a rule requiring family planning clinics to squeal on teen-age patrons to their parents (editorial, New York Times, 1/13/83). By labeling the requirement a squeal rule, opponents of the plan stacked the argument in their favor. |