sarbutn.
/ˈsɑːbət/ local slang.
In Birmingham: a police informer. Also as v. intransitive = inform v. 4b.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > information > informing on or against > [noun] > informer > police informer
setter1630
nose1789
mouchard1802
rat1818
stool-pigeon1830
knark1851
police informer1851
nark1859
telegraph1864
copper1885
sarbut1897
Noah's Ark1898
stool1906
snout1910
finger1914
policeman1923
stoolie1924
shelf1926
grass1929
grasshopper1937
grasser1950
stukach1969
supergrass1975
society > communication > information > informing on or against > inform on or against [verb (intransitive)]
inform1588
peach1598
whistle1599
sing1612
whiddlec1661
squeak1690
wheedle1710
whittle1735
to blow the gab1785
snitch1801
rat1810
nose1811
sing1816
gnarl1819
split1819
stag1839
clype1843
squeal1846
blow1848
to round on1857
nark1859
pimp1865
squawk1872
ruck1884
to come or turn copper1891
copper1897
sneak1897
cough1901
stool1911
tattle-tale1918
snout1923
talk1924
fink1925
scream1925
sarbut1928
grass1929
to turn over1967
dime1970
1896 Birmingham Daily Mail 17 Apr. 2/5 ‘Old Sarbot’ says that..the Corporation have no legal powers to superannuate them from the rates.]
1897 Birmingham Daily Mail 5 Aug. 3/1 I knew him as one of those men who were engaged by the police for the purpose of putting up robberies and then giving information about them... They are called touts, ‘sarbuts’ or something else.
1928 F. C. Taylor Lang. of Lags in Word-lore Oct. 122 Should one of the fraternity turn informer, he is for ever afterwards known as a nark, a sarbot, a copper.
1928 F. C. Taylor Lang. of Lags in Word-lore Oct. 124 May be she'll sarbot to the D. who clobbered the kids.
1969 R. Busby Robbery Blue iii. 24 Your sarbut's story wasn't good enough... We were fooled.
1976 R. Busby New Face in Hell viii. 110 The hand-picked city crime squad..recruited their ‘sarbuts’, the city slang for informants.
1978 Daily Mail 25 Jan. 12/2 In Birmingham an informer..is a ‘sarbutt’.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1982; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
<
n.1897