Has anyone heard this slang term? What does it mean, and is it pretty well known? Maybe I’ve been living under a rock, or simply holding on to my dimes! 
- Jinx
Rat them out.
Dropped a dime into the phone to call the police (or whoever) to get the person in some serious doo doo.
Unless I’ve bought into an incorrect myth, of course. I await either confirmation or correction.
I believe it means to inform on someone to the police, and that it refers to the once upon a time price of a phone call at a pay phone.
Very logical! The term was used in an old sit-com when pay phone calls were still a dime, so this does make sense.
It means to rat someone out. Way back in the day pay telephones cost a dime to use, so if you called the man from a pay phone, you literally dropped a dime in the coin slot.
(And now I will resume my spot on the porch with all the other geezers in rocking chairs…)
You ain’t the only one…good lord, I remember when pay phones only cost a dime…and they were in booths.
…with seats!
And don’t forget the light that came on when you shut the door. You know, in the wooden indoor booths. With phone books inside.
And the phone book was generally “intact.” Even if it was chained to the booth.
Aaaah…I never realized how much I’d miss a phone booth!
And the phones has dials. Rotary dials to enter the number, not buttons.
It’s getting crowded on this porch, Kalhoun.
My mother was an operator for Southern Bell. You know, like when you dialed the 0 on that rotary dial and a live person answered?
And the phone went “ding” for a nickle, “ding ding” for a dime, and “bong” for a quarter.
I remember dime pay phones as late as 1986. Ok, so that was 20 years ago. But still.
Where was that? I remember carrying quarters for pay phones when I was a salesman in the DC area in 84 and 85.
These tones sounded a lot like the little whistle that used to come in boxes of Captain Crunch :p.
Different phone phreaking techniques. The whistle technique was different then recording and replaying the sounds of coins dropping.
Between Batavia, Auburn, Lake Ontario and the NYS-Pennsylvania border.
Actually, these days I hear it shortened, like “Should I dime on him?”