Meaning & use
fink
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountabledisapproving
A person who secretly tells authorities about others, or a contemptible, disloyal person.
Grammar: Always an insult: He called her a fink.
Patterns
- a fink on someone
Nobody trusted him after they learned he was a fink.
The gang's leader hated every fink in town.
She was called a fink for telling the teacher who cheated.
verbintransitiveslang
To inform on someone, or to back out of something you promised to do.
Grammar: Usually followed by on or out: fink on a friend, fink out of a plan.
Patterns
- fink on someone
- fink out of something
He would never fink on his friends.
The boy finked to the principal about the prank.
Two members finked out at the last minute.
Word forms
| plural | finks |
|---|---|
| third person singular | finks |
| past tense | finked |
| past participle | finked |
| -ing form | finking |
Common combinations
- a rotten fink
- They shouted that he was a rotten fink.
- fink on someone
- Don't fink on me to the boss.
- fink out
- He finked out just before the test.
- call someone a fink
- She called him a fink for reading her diary aloud.
Synonyms and how they differ
- snitch
- Snitch is the more current slang word and works more neutrally among kids, while fink sounds dated.
- informer
- Informer is a neutral, formal word for someone who passes on information, with less contempt than fink.
- rat
- Rat is blunter and suggests a betrayal of close friends or a gang.
Opposites
Word family
- ratfink noun
- an extra-insulting form of fink
- finked verb
- past form of fink
Commonly confused: fink or finch?
fink vs finch
A finch is a small songbird; the two words only look similar.
Practice
Nobody wanted to be the ______ who told the teacher what happened.
Choose one answer.
A fink is someone who informs on others. A finch is a bird, and finis means the end.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “fink”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.