fink
Plural: finks
Noun
- someone acting as an informer or decoy for the police
- A contemptible person.
- An informer.
- A strikebreaker.
- Any of several birds in the family Ploceidae native to southern Africa.
Verb
Verb Forms: finked, finking, finks
- To inform on someone; to act as an informer.
- take the place of work of someone on strike
- confess to a punishable or reprehensible deed, usually under pressure
- To betray a trust; to inform on.
- Pronunciation spelling of think.
Examples
- She threatened to fink on her opponent if he tried to use an unofficial Scrabble word.
Origin / Etymology
Unknown; first attested in 1894. A connection to Yiddish as some propose is unlikely.
Suggested origins include:
* German Fink (“finch; frivolous or dissolute person; informer”) as finches are notoriously chatty birds in groups. If so, then Doublet of finch. Compare canary (“informer”).
* Partly from the German theory, a fanciful association by students with the freedom of wild birds as opposed to caged ones.
* The slang name pink for Pinkerton agents and their use as strikebreakers in the 1892 Homestead strike. If the term is from the corporate name, then it is of Scots origin, Pinkerton being from a place near Dunbar, which is from an unrecognized first element (possibly ultimately pre-Celtic substrate) and Old English tūn (“enclosure, homestead, etc.”).
Synonyms
blackleg, canary, confess, rat, scab, sneak, sneaker, snitch, snitcher, squeal, stool pigeon, stoolie, stoolpigeon, grass up, inform, informant
Scrabble Score: 11
fink: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordfink: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
fink: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary