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stool pigeon

stool pigeon {n.}

A criminal who informs on his associates.

The detective was able to solve the crime mainly through information obtained from a stool pigeon.

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Source: A Dictionary of American Idioms

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clay pigeon

[clay pigeon] {n.}, {slang}, {informal} 1. A popular target at practice shooting made of clay and roughly resembling a pigeon; an easy target that doesn't move. * /All he can […] A Dictionary of American Idioms

house detective

[house detective] {n.} A detective employed by a hotel, store, or other business to watch for any trouble. * /The one-armed man sweeping the bank floor was really the house […] A Dictionary of American Idioms

ill-gotten gains

[ill-gotten gains] {n. phr.} Goods or money obtained in an illegal or immoral fashion. * /The jailed criminal had plenty of time to think about his ill-gotten gains./ A Dictionary of American Idioms

keep (one) posted

[keep (one) posted] {v. phr.} To receive current information; inform oneself. * /My associates phoned me every day and kept me posted on new developments in our business./ A Dictionary of American Idioms

Slang is

"very informal usage in vocabulary and idiom that is characteristically more metaphorical, playful, elliptical, vivid and ephemeral than ordinary language" (Random House Unabridged Dictionary) - learn ~600 slang expressions

An idiom is

an expression "whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements… or from the general grammatical rules of a language"

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