- a coin of the US and Canada worth ten cents see also five-and-dime, nickel-and-dimeTopics Moneyc1Word Originlate Middle English: from Old French disme, from Latin decima pars ‘tenth part’. The word originally denoted a tithe or tenth part; the modern sense ‘ten cent coin’ dates from the late 18th cent.
Idioms
See dime in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarya dime a dozen (North American English)
(British English two/ten a penny)
- very common and therefore not valuable
drop a/the dime on somebody
- (North American English, informal) to tell the police or people in authority that somebody has done something wrong
- If he finds out who dropped the dime on him, they're in trouble.
- I'm worried if I drop a dime on them, they'll get fired, which I don't think they really deserve.
Check pronunciation:
dime