Why is it called grassing on someone?
If you watch British police procedurals, you’ll likely come across the term to grass someone, meaning “to inform on someone” or “to rat someone out.” It’s a bit of British rhyming slang that originated with the 19th-century phrase to shop on someone.
What does grass mean slang?
informer
To grass in British slang is indeed to inform on a person to the authorities; a grass is an informer. It has been proposed that grass is from snake in the grass, a treacherous person or a secret enemy.
What does your wife is a grass mean?
A woman who is divorced or separated from her husband. A married woman whose husband is away. [from 19th c.] noun. A woman whose husband is temporarily absent.
Why are police informants called grass?
The term grass comes from the 1940’s song Whispering Grass. The term grass then became popular use for someone passing on information. The cockney use of ‘grass’ for informer is not from ‘grasshopper’.
What does it mean if someone tells me to touch grass?
People on the internet can be found saying this as an insult to people who they think are very disconnected from real life: “You seriously need to go outside and touch some grass.”
What does you grassed on me mean?
/ɡræs/ UK slang. If a person grasses on someone else, they tell the police or someone in authority about something bad that that person has done: Dan grassed on them to the local police. Revealing secrets & becoming known.
What is a grass woman?
Nowadays a woman is called a grass widow whose husband had to leave home (for example, obliged to work far away from his family). Alternatively, she may be a divorced woman or a woman living apart from her husband (so in American English). Why straw, why the substitution of grass for straw in English (Engl.
What is a grass widow girl?
Definition of grass widow 1 chiefly dialectal. a : a discarded mistress. b : a woman who has had an illegitimate child. 2a : a woman whose husband is temporarily away from her. b : a woman divorced or separated from her husband.
Why does grass mean snitch?
The first known use of “grass” in that context is Arthur Gardner’s crime novel Tinker’s Kitchen, published in 1932, in which a “grass” is defined as “an informer”. The origin derives from rhyming slang: grasshopper – copper; a “grass” or “grasser” tells the “copper” or policeman.
Why is a grass a snitch?
The use of “grass” as British slang for a police informer dates back to the 1930s, and is apparently a short form of the slang term “grasshopper,” meaning the same thing. By about 1700, “snitch” had progressed from meaning “flick to the nose” to serving as slang for the nose itself (“As the … egg …
What does touch your nose mean?
What does it mean when someone says ‘touch your nose’? Essentially, it means to “stop being nosey”. Urban Dictionary described it like this: “When someone tells you to ‘touch your nose’ it means to stay out of their business”
Where does the phrase to grass someone come from?
If you watch British police procedurals, you’ll likely come across the term to grass someone, meaning “to inform on someone” or “to rat someone out.” It’s a bit of British rhyming slang that originated with the 19th-century phrase to shop on someone. That gave us the noun shopper, which became grasshopper, and then got shortened to grass.
What is the definition of grass on up?
Definition of grass on/up. : to tell the police about the criminal activity of (someone) He refused to grass on his friends. Someone grassed him up.
Which is the correct phrasal verb with grass?
— phrasal verb with grass uk /ɡrɑːs/ us /ɡræs/ verb. › If a person grasses on someone else, they tell the police or someone in authority about something bad that that person has done: Dan grassed on them to the local police. Thesaurus: synonyms and related words. Revealing secrets & becoming known.
What are the synonyms for the word grass?
Synonyms for grass (on) fink, inform, rat (on), sing, snitch, split (on) [ British], squeak,