Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A contemptible person.
- n. An informer.
- n. A hired strikebreaker.
- v. To inform against another person.
- v. To withhold promised support or participation: They said they'd help us, but then finked out.
Wiktionary
Etymologies
- Origin unknown. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Maybe they routinely slept with undergrads as TA's and no one ever wanted to be known as the fink who turned them in.”
“In my family, it was considered an insult to be called a fink and even worse to be called a ratfink.”
“He don 'fink 'bout dem mooch only w'en he git dronk, or git scairt.”
“Cockney sweetness and a slight speech impediment ( "fink" for”
“Mr. Fitz would say, “Doan fink too mush how bad you feel, jus know you feel and keep koing.””
Simon & Schuster: Chicken Soup for the Soul: Grieving and Recovery
“Doan fink too mush how bad you feel, jus know you feel and keep koing.”
Simon & Schuster: Chicken Soup for the Soul: Grieving and Recovery
“Every time I think of him I can still hear him say, “Doan fink too mush how bad you feel, jus know you feel and keep koing.””
Simon & Schuster: Chicken Soup for the Soul: Grieving and Recovery
“The potheads, though, believe she is a fink for abandoning their narcotized orbit.”
“In fact, the word “fink” is sprayed on her locker.”
“Rat fink reporter types go for the scourge of Baltimore, HL Mencken, whose collected Prejudices have just been published.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fink’.
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Bad Options
words for those who commit particular crimes: i.e., bank robber, arsonist, etc.
liar, cheat, traitor, arsonist, felon, braggard, thief, profiteer, impostor, phony, fraud, culprit and 212 more...
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scoundrels and bastards
already several of these lists, but I wanted my own
varlet, scoundrel, ne'er-do-well, cad, thug, churl, boor, hooligan, bastard, slubberdegullion, dastard, tosspot and 85 more...
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Long s examples
I'd like to make a long s list--I'm especially interested in words where the long s has been mistaken for a miniscule f.
Inspired by comments on the word fuch.
Compare wi...fuch, fmoke, Congrefs, blefs, long s, exifted, perfon, greateft, furrounding, goodnefs, pleafes, muft and 81 more...
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Words of Ill-Repute
bona roba, obloquy, bagnio, demirep, frowzy, odium, calumny, opprobrium, rogue, currish, piacular, abreact and 11 more...
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bilby's Words
pandemic, whirl, guffaw, ethereal, feisty, dunt, ephemeral, pule, flipergebet, prink, maunder, gammon and 1023 more...
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kingofbash's Words
bash, poleaxed, salacious, libertine, charlatan, aplomb, fortuitous, finagle, apoplectic, debutante, carte blanche, aardvark and 472 more...
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Reading Reading
Words from the works of Peter Reading - at least one from each (except the Schwitters-esque erosions, cut-ups etc).
overbright, pimpled, muskiness, effuse, stoup, maul, unlevel, viscid, perfidious, glibly, aloes, drouth and 449 more...
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Dain's Words
rabble, terminus, archaic, atavism, demiurge, waylay, syzygy, jocoserious, quark, entropy, cinnabar, shamble and 912 more...
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suzyg's Words
brandish, recompence, shopping, dichotomy, paradigm, reverse osmosis, anyway, despite, drunk, degenerate, insipid, grateful and 438 more...
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words
diplopic, dolorous, farrago, surety, scuttlebutt, Arabesque, infarct, neurasthenia, lambent, expurge, univocal, simper and 395 more...
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Nullologue
nullologue, vaudeville, debauchery, debauched, libertine, nothing, dhadak, tz pf, nothingology, goodbyeology, sharmuta, manifesto and 866 more...
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Words that are fun to say
stipple, carbuncle, dongle, exemplar, misbegotten, gigolo, salubrious, jupiter, propinquity, piglet, tobogganing, supercilious and 309 more...
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Kaichi's Wordie Darlings, or I'm a Lo...
persnickety, discombobulated, braggadoccio, anthropomorphous, antelucan, confluxible, anomalous, poseur, gallivant, poppycock, falderal, gewgaw and 705 more...
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Bad Guys
For more badness, see hernesheir's excellent Perponyms.
rascal, scoundrel, blackguard, mountebank, rapscallion, scamp, miscreant, knave, scapegrace, rogue, charlatan, hoodlum and 65 more...
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my dictionary
palatial, immaculate, sleep-deprived, Kleptocracy, customs brokerage, parochial, stagnation, egregious, rife, interdict, unassuming, extortion and 81 more...
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expert
words that experts know.
cacique, erethism, o.p.a.c., performativity, telnet, bibliometrics, n.u.f.a.n., levy, copy catalog, repurpose, tattle tape, syncretic and 36 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for fink.
yarb Now the sheets are brown-stained and arctic,
oh! love's a perfidious fink,
and I snuffle the bed like a truffle-pig
desperate to retrace his stink.
- Peter Reading, Song of the Bedsit Girl, from Tom O' Bedlam's Beauties, 1981 Jun 29, 2008
sonofgroucho Is ratfink a subspecies? Oct 21, 2007
seanahan There are a number of opposing ideas for the etymology of this word. I feel very strongly that we need to root out the true source. Oct 21, 2007