snitches get stitches

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Informants are often punished or retaliated against

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

những người cung cấp thông tin thường bị trừng phạt hoặc trả thù

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: people who tattle get sewn up
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

You'd better not tell the teacher, remember snitches get stitches

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “snitches get stitches” mean?

Informants are often punished or retaliated against Literally: people who tattle get sewn up

Is “snitches get stitches” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.