drop a dime

present singular third person drops a dime · participle present dropping a dime · participle past dropped a dime · past dropped a dime · alternative drop a nickel

1. idiomaticslangTo make a telephone call.
2. slangwith onTo inform, to call the authorities (on).

   He was in the back for a few minutes. Turned out he was dropping a dime on Ralph.

   3 more examples

   Near-synonyms: give [someone] up, give [someone] away; spill the beans, let the cat out of the bag

   We got a crowd of black, white customers, out-of-state license plates, what have you. Somebody gonna check that out. They gonna drop a dime on me, call 911. And you know with my jacket I can't go back to jail.

   1995 September 13, Richard Price, Spike Lee, 00:27:05 from the start, in Clockers, spoken by Rodney Little (Delroy Lindo), 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks; distributed by Universal Pictures

   Who dropped a dime to that newspaper reporter, Your Honor?

   2002 July 14, Rafael Alvarez, “One Arrest” (11:51 from the start), in The Wire, season 1, episode 7 (television production), spoken by Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West), via HBO

   Synonyms: dime, snitch, rat out, grass up, bewray, blow the whistle, clepe, denounce