| / English Dictionary |
INFORMER
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
One who reveals confidential information in return for money
Synonyms:
betrayer; blabber; informer; rat; squealer
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("informer" is a kind of...):
informant; source (a person who supplies information)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "informer"):
canary; fink; sneak; sneaker; snitch; snitcher; stool pigeon; stoolie; stoolpigeon (someone acting as an informer or decoy for the police)
copper's nark; nark (an informer or spy working for the police)
grass; supergrass (a police informer who implicates many people)
Derivation:
inform (act as an informer)
Context examples:
I told him, “that in the kingdom of Tribnia, by the natives called Langdon, where I had sojourned some time in my travels, the bulk of the people consist in a manner wholly of discoverers, witnesses, informers, accusers, prosecutors, evidences, swearers, together with their several subservient and subaltern instruments, all under the colours, the conduct, and the pay of ministers of state, and their deputies. The plots, in that kingdom, are usually the workmanship of those persons who desire to raise their own characters of profound politicians; to restore new vigour to a crazy administration; to stifle or divert general discontents; to fill their coffers with forfeitures; and raise, or sink the opinion of public credit, as either shall best answer their private advantage. It is first agreed and settled among them, what suspected persons shall be accused of a plot; then, effectual care is taken to secure all their letters and papers, and put the owners in chains. These papers are delivered to a set of artists, very dexterous in finding out the mysterious meanings of words, syllables, and letters: for instance, they can discover a close stool, to signify a privy council; a flock of geese, a senate; a lame dog, an invader; the plague, a standing army; a buzzard, a prime minister; the gout, a high priest; a gibbet, a secretary of state; a chamber pot, a committee of grandees; a sieve, a court lady; a broom, a revolution; a mouse-trap, an employment; a bottomless pit, a treasury; a sink, a court; a cap and bells, a favourite; a broken reed, a court of justice; an empty tun, a general; a running sore, the administration.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
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