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drop a dime
Idioms and Phrases
Inform on or betray someone, as in No one can cheat in this class—someone's bound to drop a dime and tell the teacher . This expression, alluding to the ten-cent coin long used for making a telephone call, originated as underworld slang for phoning the police to inform on a criminal and occasionally is extended to any kind of betrayal. [1960s]Example Sentences
They encouraged anonymous tipsters to drop a dime on gang members or their collaborators.
They didn’t break the law to make a billion dollars — at least usually not — so you can’t drop a dime on them.
That means you might have to pay full price to play God of War: Ragnarok when it releases, while Game Pass subscribers won’t have to drop a dime extra to play Starfield.
And William L. Rukeyser of Davis, Calif., pointed out that we still use the expression “Drop a dime” on someone.
It just got a lot easier to drop a dime on them.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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