🐽 Animal's nose 👃 A large nose 🕵️ To inform 🐷 To root

to snout

9.3

To tell the police about someone so they get in trouble

verb
/snaʊt/

: chivarse (a la policía)

The gang was caught after one member snouted to the authorities.

Examples

Nobody trusted him after he snouted about their secret meetings.
Don't snout on your friends!
He snouted his colleagues to the police before the union hearing began.
He was afraid someone would snout on him.
He snouted on his former partner to avoid the charges against him.
One of the suspects snouted to the police, revealing details of the crime.
After the arrest, many feared that someone would snout on them to reduce their own sentences.

Synonyms

to rat

vsto snout

Informal

70 8.8

To betray others by telling secret information about them

informs specifically to police or official authority without strikebreaking sense

to snitch

vsto snout

Slang

36 7.9

To secretly tell the police or a person in charge about someone's bad actions

reports mainly to police or other official authority

Antonyms

to protect

∞ 1.0

To keep someone or something safe from harm

to defend

∞ 1.3

To protect people and things from attack or harm

Compounds

wet snout

1 4.1

A wet nose on an animal, often a dog, that feels cool and damp

snout beetle

7.6

A small beetle with a long nose that often damages crops like grain and nuts

Surface Forms

snout infinitive

snouted past

snouted past participle

snouting present participle

snouts third person singular

Etymology

Snout used as an informal verb for 'tell on someone' is thought of like this: a nose 'sniffs out' secrets. A helpful way to remember it is to imagine someone 'sniffing out' information and then telling the police, so to snout someone is to find out and report them.