drop a dime on and rat out

[Bruce Dykes]

-----Original Message-----
From: Jesse T Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Date: Sunday, March 05, 2000 8:31 PM
Subject: Re: drop a dime on and rat out


>> In a case I've been working on the writer of a threat message uses the
>> expressions, "I don't want to drop a dime on him" and "I don't want to
rat
>> him out," both of which mean that the writer doesn't want to expose or
>
>But both expressions I think are reasonably well known outside
>the criminal world, or at least well enough known that their
>use by a mainstream writer shouldn't occasion too much surprise.


Hardly. We used it in my high school in the 80's, and it was hardly a hotbed
of criminal activity. I heard this phrase just last night on an SF program
called Total Recall 2070, and I was wondering how likely it was that that
phrase would last another 70 years. I'd give it pretty good odds, especially
in the law breaking/enforcement community.

Presumably 'dropping a dime' derives from the once traditional cost of a
call from a US pay phone. I'd be really surprised if it didn't. Does it
occur outside the US?

bkd