1834 A. Smith Diary 9 Dec. (1939) I. 168 Red vink and Caffer fink common along the streams.

1853 Edinb. New Philos. Jrnl. 55 82 The yellow and green finks may be seen disporting in multitudes..and entering every now and then into their grass-woven nests.

1896 E. Clairmonte Africander 2 A flock of long-tailed mousebirds, called finks, would dash past to settle in a rooihout tree.

1897 A. Page Afternoon Ride 62 The Kafir fink swaying on the grass.

1908 A. K. Haagner & R. H. Ivy Sketches S. Afr. Bird-life 70 The Red Bishopbird or Kaffir-fink.

1931 R. C. Bolster Land & Sea Birds S.-W. Cape 133 The Bishop Birds are also known as ‘Kaffir Finks’.

1936 R. Campbell Mithraic Emblems 34 The scarlet fink, the chook, the sprew, That seem to call me by my name.

1903 G. Ade People you Know 60 Anyone who goes against the Faculty single-handed is a Fink.

1914 L. E. Jackson & C. R. Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Slang 33 Fink,..an unreliable confederate or incompetent sympathizer.

1925 Amer. Speech 1 151/2 ‘Dick’ and ‘bull’ and ‘John Law’ have become established as names for the police, while ‘fink’ and ‘stool’ and ‘fly-dick’ denote the plain-clothes men.

1926 Amer. Mercury Jan. 63/1 Dating from the famous Homestead strike of 1892 is the odious fink. [It] according to one version was originally Pink, a contraction of Pinkerton, and referred to the army of strikebreakers recruited by the detective agency.

1929 E. Booth Stealing through Life xi. 259 ‘That guy..is a rat.’.. ‘So's the fink with him.’

a1940 F. S. Fitzgerald Last Tycoon (1941) vi. 121 A fink? That's a strike-breaker or a company tec.

1940 R. Chandler Farewell, my Lovely v. 25 Now he's looking for the fink that turned him up eight years ago.

1959 C. Williams Man in Motion viii. 106 Except for being a rat, a fink, a scab, a thug, and a goon, he's one of the sweetest guys you'll ever meet.

1970 New Yorker 15 Aug. 66/2 The film, in sudden want of a through-and-through-fink type, forgets that it has established two..hippies as loyal.

1888 R. Kipling Wee Willie Winkie 5 I don't fink I'll ever want to kiss big girls.

1913 B. Moore in E. Pertwee Reciter's Second Treasury Verse 226 I really fink, 'tween me and you, I'd raver be a little girl.

1941 H. G. Wells You can't be too Careful iii. ii. 115 That boy is still as pure as the driven snow. (I don't fink. I saw his face.)

1962 N. Marsh Hand in Glove vi. 202 Makes you fink, don't it?

1925 Flynn's 24 Jan. 119/1 Fink, to squeal; to inform on.

1953 W. R. Burnett Vanity Row v. 43 Only a rat co-operated with the police; only a rat finked!

1953 R. Chandler Long Good-bye ix. 57 Suppose you had to hire a private eye... Would you want one that finked on his friends?

1969 Rolling Stone 28 June 4/2 The gang tries to sell their smack to a black hippie pusher who finks on them.