стукач (stukach)

What it means

1. 1.

   An informer; a grass. One of the heaviest accusations in the language, carrying the full weight of the Soviet century behind it.

2. 2.

   Applied well beyond anything official — to the colleague who reports you to management or the classmate who tells the teacher — but never lightly, and never as a joke between people who do not know each other well.

Examples with translations

• В отделе завёлся стукач.

  Someone in the department is running to management.

• Он стучал на своих же.

  He informed on his own people.

Where it comes from

From стучать 'to knock, to tap' — the informer knocks on the authorities' door. The verb стучать на кого-то is as common as the noun and equally damning.

Other forms

Romanised as:

stukach