ratfink

noun

1. (Canada, US)An informer or spy; a traitor.

   “The authors have facetiously labeled the contemplated musical as 'Ratfink', after the name of its central character, James J. Ratfink. Its title is not meant in a derogatory sense.”

   “The film director accused him of being the worst kind of a rat fink (rat pack talk) for leaving a play so early.”

   “The first factor is labeled the "Ratfink" factor. This factor consists only of items that measure whether a boy would give information to various adult figures if one of his friends were in trouble.”

   “In my novella, "Our Lady of Desperation," a painter and civil servant square up to one another. […] One of the protagonists was an artist; so it was assumed I was somehow in his camp. In fact both are ratfinks; when thieves fall out, honest men, if they don't come into their dues, are at least afforded a wry smile.”

   “You'd think that some rat-fink in the company would spill the beans and warn Mr. Wright, but nobody did. There wasn't much company loyalty at Nineveh Publishing.”

2. (Canada, US, also, attributive)A dislikable or contemptible person.

   “Maxwell—or Maxie, as he was familiarly called by his once and former rat fink girlfriend—lived in a six-story walkup on a narrow street in Calm's Point, […]”

   “He [Dubyaman, a parody comic superhero based loosely on George W. Bush] searches for "dirty ratfink terrorists" and aims to ferret out their "whacko ideas."”

   “I started not to write the sad story of what happened to these two outstanding soldiers because I didn't want to convey the mistaken impression that the ratfinks they ran into were typical of the fine soldiers who fought in Vietnam.”

   “'What did you just do?' Sunshine asked. 'Did you just kill a moth?' / 'No,' he said. He glanced at it then flicked it off. Shimmering dust filmed his skin. […] / 'Sometimes you are such a ratfink jackass,' she told him, throwing his hand down, some of the shimmery dust on her own fingers.”

3. (Canada, US)A strikebreaker.

verb

1. (Canada, US, transitive)To inform on; to betray.

   “It led to some rather incredible and colourful claims in the submission by the union that the employers had ratfinked on previous agreements.”

   “The dumb bastard says he never rat-finks on a woman. They're too precious, he tells me. And he should know. He has had many of them.”

   “There's a breed of people in every office who breed problems around them—ratfinking about your long lunch breaks, revealing confidential salary information, blaming everyone for every error.”

   “On Feb. 11, McLeod officials marched into the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] to relate this story, just as Netscape rat-finked on Microsoft to the Department of Justice. FCC officials demanded that Qwest tell them what the heck was going on.”

   “Take a three-inch notepad (similar to a Post-It note), and print a large, brightly colored letter on it. […] "T" stands for "Tattle Tale." Punishment for rat-finking on the other child.”