cheese eater

English

Alternative forms

• cheese-eater

Etymology

From the idea that rats eat cheese.

Noun

cheese eater (plural cheese eaters)

1. A rat; an informer who betrays colleagues.
   • 1998, Sam B. Girgus, Samuel Bruce Girgus, Hollywood Renaissance: The Cinema of Democracy in the Era of Ford, Capra, and Kazan, page 155:

     As a "stool pigeon," or what the corrupt union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) calls a "cheese eater," Terry now feels totally dejected and alone, even though the murder by the mob of his brother, Charley "the Gent" (Rod Steiger) helped motivate him to testify.

   • 2003, Robert Scott, Dangerous Attraction:

     I'm not sure if I wrote you about all the madness or not, but Mumrock's [Justin Merriman] paperwork is starting to come in and he was making it very clear to me to tell you about cheese eaters in a cell near you.

   • 2007, Carl B. Klockars, Sanja Kutnjak Ivkovich, M.R. Haberfeld, Enhancing Police Integrity, page 71:

     The issue involved a group member who was widely regarded in the Department as a "cheese eater" - the Charleston term for a police officer who advances his career by reporting the misconduct of others.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cheese,‎ eater. One who eats cheese.