fink
Americannoun
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a strikebreaker.
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a labor spy.
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an informer; stool pigeon.
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a contemptible or thoroughly unattractive person.
verb (used without object)
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to inform to the police; squeal.
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to act as a strikebreaker; scab.
verb phrase
noun
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a strikebreaker; blackleg
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an informer, such as one working for the police; spy
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an unpleasant, disappointing, or contemptible person
verb
Usage
What does fink mean? Fink is an insulting name that commonly refers to someone who informs the police or other authorities when others break the law or the rules—an informant or snitch. It can also be used as a verb in the same way that snitch can. In the context of labor unions, fink refers to a strikebreaker—someone who works during the strike (a scab) or finds workers to replace the striking ones. It can also be used as a verb in this sense. As a noun, it can also refer to a person placed by management to spy on union activities. More generally, fink can be used to refer to an overall unpleasant or untrustworthy person. In all of its uses, it is very negative, though not as common as some of its synonyms, like snitch and scab. Fink is used in the similar term ratfink, which refers to a snitch or a despicable person. Example: That fink told the teacher I was going to cut class.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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finksimple
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finkssimple
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have finkedperfect
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has finkedperfect
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am finkingprogressive
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are finkingprogressive
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is finkingprogressive
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have been finkingperfect progressive
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has been finkingperfect progressive
Past
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finkedsimple
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had finkedperfect
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was finkingprogressive
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were finkingprogressive
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had been finkingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of fink
1900–05, compared with German Fink literally, finch, colloquial epithet for an undesirable person, especially an untidy or loose-living one (often in compounds, as Duckfink sycophant, Schmierfink untidy writer); but the transmission of this word to English and the range of meanings of the English word have not been clarified fully
Explanation
A fink is someone who snitches or tattles, like your sister who told your parents that you were the one who ate the last chocolate chip cookie. That fink! Fink is a North American slang term that originally meant "informant" or "strikebreaker" and expanded to be a general pejorative term for a jerk or an unpleasant person. Experts aren't sure about the word's origins, though many suspect it comes from German; Fink means "finch," but it's also used for "frivolous or dissolute person." In any event, you'll know a fink when you see one, because they'll be tattling on you.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The first has a group of students refusing to name which among them mocked the teacher; the second finds one of them willing to fink.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 27, 2025
Because Epson’s print heads are always connected to the printer, fink can be piped to them from anywhere—a cartridge or a tank on the side of the printer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2015
Thus, the exam rooms of Old Nassau are some of the few places where it is not just appropriate but necessary for a gentleman to fink on his friends.
From Slate ● Aug. 27, 2014
"I fink he struggled a little bit with the English language," mused Jamie, adding that England's players "didn't perform as well as wot they can."
From The Guardian ● Jul. 6, 2010
I still fink it’s funny though—’cause I get paid for not doing nuffing.
From "The Inquisitor's Tale" by Adam Gidwitz
Now I'm beginning to wonder if we are all becoming mesmerised by these sly, furry finks and if they are mounting a bid for world supremacy.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 5, 2014
He is one of the great finks of this world.
From Time Magazine Archive
I've had to fight finks and scabs and look out for my boys.
From Time Magazine Archive
The plot is straight from Hollywood's pasteboard jungle, but the documentary scenes of punks and finks roaming through Manhattan's tenement-glutted, garbage-strewn juvenile jungle carry the authority of the headlines.
From Time Magazine Archive
Gold cuff finks on the sleeves of his black military tuxedo coat have the Colorado coat of arms engraved on them.
From "Legend" by Marie Lu
He had finked, not been with them, and he would not, as we have seen, be with them that night in front of the Hilton.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 26, 2018
I finked Vic would turn, and he don't turn, and I 's hungry for somebody.
From A Master's Degree by McCarter, Margaret Hill
"P'r'aps by the morning I'll have finked of something very nice—then won't you be glad?"
From The Carroll Girls by Quiller-Couch, Mabel
Me and Nobbles finked we heard them say, "Run away; you've no business here."
From 'Me and Nobbles' by Le Feuvre, Amy
"I've finked now," observed Rob, quite at his ease, and eager to win the entree into this delightful circle.
From Little Men by Alcott, Louisa May
But finking out in favor of the Chiefs is just about as low as I could go.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 27, 2023
Another song recalls Sterling Hayden, the tough-guy actor and star of "Johnny Guitar," who was wracked by guilt for finking on fellow actors during the McCarthy hearings in the 1950s.
From Reuters ● Jan. 19, 2012
Jacob looks like he’s finking about what to say.
From "The Inquisitor's Tale" by Adam Gidwitz
Why, Allie," she exclaimed, "what you finking about so much?
From Uncle Rutherford's Nieces A Story for Girls by Mathews, Joanna H. (Joanna Hooe)
He's just lying here and finking 'bout fings!
From The Story of Julia Page by Norris, Kathleen Thompson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
