Snitch

How to spell snitch

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce snitch

What does snitch mean?

1. verbTo secretly report another person's wrongdoing to someone in authority.
2. nounA person who secretly informs on others to people in authority.
3. verbTo take something small without permission; to pilfer.

Snitch in a sentence

• verb

  He was afraid a colleague would snitch on him to the manager.

• noun

  The others shunned him because they branded him a snitch.

• verb

  The children would snitch biscuits from the tin when no one watched.

• verb

  The prisoner refused to snitch on the rest of the gang.

• noun

  Every gang has a code against being a snitch.

• verb

  He tried to snitch a chip from her plate before dinner.

Where does snitch come from?

Language of origin: Unknown

The origin of 'snitch' is genuinely murky, which is why its confidence is low. It surfaces in English slang during the early 1700s, where it first meant a fillip or a flick on the nose, and soon afterwards 'snitch' became a cant term for the nose itself. From the idea of the nose came the sense of someone who 'noses' into other people's business and then reports it, so by the late 1700s a 'snitch' was an informer. The verb 'to snitch', meaning to betray someone to the authorities, followed naturally from the noun. A separate colloquial sense, to pilfer or pinch a small item, may have been influenced by the similar-sounding word 'snatch', though the connection is not certain. The plain spelling, with no silent letters, is one of the few mercies here.

How the word is built

• snitch (single root; no prefix or suffix, ending in -tch as in 'pitch' and 'ditch')