ratfink

See also: rat fink

English

WOTD – 23 November 2017

Alternative forms

• rat fink, rat-fink

Etymology

From rat +‎ fink.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɹætfɪŋk/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: rat‧fink

Noun

ratfink (plural ratfinks) (Canada, US)

1. An informer or spy; a traitor. [from 1960s]
   • 1961 May 9, Louis Calta, “New Show Listed by Jones, Schmidt”, in The New York Times, volume 110, number 37726, page 43:

     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.

   • 1961 November 13, “A Quiet Dinner at Ernie Kovacs”, in New York Herald Tribune via Winnipeg Free Press, page 15:

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

   • 1968 October, LaMar T. Empey, Steven G. Lubeck, “Conformity and Deviance in the 'Situation of Company'”, in American Sociological Review, volume 33, number 5, Albany, N.Y.: American Sociological Society, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, page 763:

     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.

   • 1997, Keith Roberts, chapter III, in Lemady: Episodes of a Writer's Life (Borgo Bioviews; no. 9), San Bernardino, Calif.: Borgo Press, →ISBN; republished Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Wildside Press, 1999, →ISBN, page 35:

     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.

   • 1999, Joseph Gordon, “Kathy Conrad”, in Vanity Affair, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 89:

     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.

   • 2007, Ichabauk Rum, “Handra Delamore”, in Ill: A Novel: Book One, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 63:

     He wasn't a gabber, nor a squawker not a ratfink nor a snitch. He wasn't a whistleblower. He wasn't a gossip. He didn't talk about someone behind their back. Banks knew that firsthand because he had tried on several occasions to get Quinley to talk about other people, and Quinley would never do it. He'd laugh and change the subject.

2. (also attributive) A dislikable or contemptible person. [from 1960s]
   • 1999, Ed McBain [pseudonym; Evan Hunter], chapter 6, in The Last Dance: A Novel of the 87th Precinct (87th Precinct Mystery; 50), New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 150:

     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, […]

   • 2002 March 28, Kim Barker, “It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a fuss”, in Chicago Tribune‎^[1], archived from the original on 23 September 2017:

     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."

   • 2006, Ted G. Arthurs, chapter 10, in Land with No Sun: A Year in Vietnam with the 173rd Airborne (Stackpole Military History Series), Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, →ISBN, pages 222–223:

     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.

   • 2012, Lucy Wood, Diving Belles and Other Stories, 1st Mariner Books edition, Boston, Mass.: Mariner Books, →ISBN, page 99:

     '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.

Synonyms

• fink

Translations

informer or spy

• Russian: шпио́н (ru) m (špión)

dislikeable or contemptible person

• Russian: подо́нок (ru) m (podónok)

Verb

ratfink (third-person singular simple present ratfinks, present participle ratfinking, simple past and past participle ratfinked)

1. (transitive) To inform on; to betray. [from 1970s]
   • 1980 November 21, Anthony George Malcolm, “Agricultural Workers Amendment Bill: Report of Labour and Education Committee”, in Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): Second Session, Thirty-ninth Parliament: House of Representatives, volume 435, Wellington, N.Z.: P. D. Hasselberg, government printer, published 1981, →OCLC, page 5237:

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

   • 1992, Sean Flannery, Moving Targets, New York, N.Y.: Tor Books, →ISBN:

     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.

   • 1999, Karen Salmansohn, The 30-day Plan to Whip Your Career into Submission: Transform Yourself from Job Slave into the Master of Your Destiny in just One Month, 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Broadway Books, →ISBN:

     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.

   • 2000 May 1, David [Stephenson] Rohde, “Qwest's Behind-the-scenes Merger Maneuver”, in John Dix, editor, Network World, volume 17, number 18, Southborough, Mass.: Network World, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 40:

     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.

   • 2010, Jill Milligan, Michael Milligan, “Creative Moms: Putting the 'D-I-S' in 'D-I-S-C-I-P-L-I-N-E'”, in Mom Rules: Notes on Motherhood, the World's Best Job, New York, N.Y.: Skyhorse Publishing, →ISBN, page 59:

     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.

   • 2016, Mo (Monique) Daviau, Every Anxious Wave, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 88:

     I shoved Sahlil off of me. He fell backward on my bed. "What? Who the hell rat finked on me?"

References

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “ratfink”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
• “rat fink”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022; “rat-fink”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.