drop a dime

English

Alternative forms

drop a nickel

Etymology

See dime § Etymology 2

Pronunciation

Audio (AU) (file)

Verb

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).
- 1995 September 13, Richard Price and Spike Lee, Clockers, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks; distributed by Universal Pictures, spoken by Rodney Little (Delroy Lindo), 00:27:05 from the start:
  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”, in The Wire, season 1, episode 7, HBO, spoken by Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West), 11:51 from the start:
  Who dropped a dime to that newspaper reporter, Your Honor?
He was in the back for a few minutes. Turned out he was dropping a dime on Ralph.

Synonyms

(to inform on): dime, grass up, snitch; See also Thesaurus:rat out

Related terms

dime dropper
dime on