subs. (thieves’).—1.  In pl. = handcuffs: also SNITCHERS.

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  2.  (old).—‘A Filip on the Nose’: also SNITCHEL (B. E.); also the nose.

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  Verb. (thieves’).—1.  To inform. Hence SNITCHER = an informer. Also (2) = TO NARK (q.v.).—GROSE and BEE.

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  c. 1812.  JOHN JACKSON [quoted by BYRON in Don Juan, Notes to Canto xi. 19].

        Then your blowing will wax gallows haughty,
  When she hears of your scaly mistake,
She’ll surely turn SNITCH for the forty,
  That her Jack may be regular weight.

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  1819.  J. H. VAUX, Memoirs, s.v. SNITCH; to impeach, or betray your accomplices is termed SNITCHING UPON them. A person who becomes king’s evidence on such an occasion, is said to have turned SNITCH; an informer, or tale-bearer, in general, is called a SNITCH, or a SNITCHING-RASCAL, in which case SNITCHING is synonymous with nosing or coming it.

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  1829.  The Lag’s Lament [Vidocq’s Memoirs, iii. 160].

        SNITCH on the gang, that’ll be the best vay
To save your scrag.

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