drop a dime
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English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (General Australian): (file)
Verb
[edit]drop a dime (third-person singular simple present drops a dime, present participle dropping a dime, simple past and past participle dropped a dime)
- (idiomatic, slang) To make a telephone call.
- (slang, with on) To inform, to call the authorities (on).
- He was in the back for a few minutes. Turned out he was dropping a dime on Ralph.
- 1995 September 13, Richard Price, Spike Lee, 00:27:05 from the start, in Clockers, spoken by Rodney Little (Delroy Lindo), 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks; distributed by Universal Pictures:
- We got a crowd of black, white customers, out-of-state license plates, what have you. Somebody gonna check that out. They gonna drop a dime on me, call 911. And you know with my jacket I can't go back to jail.
- 2002 July 14, Rafael Alvarez, “One Arrest” (11:51 from the start), in The Wire, season 1, episode 7 (television production), spoken by Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West), via HBO:
- Who dropped a dime to that newspaper reporter, Your Honor?
Synonyms
[edit]- (to inform on): dime, grass up, snitch; See also Thesaurus:rat out