To grass up - as in to inform on someone

Posted by Word Camel on November 24, 2002

I came across this term today in an article I was reading from a British news paper.

"This gave busybodies, voyeurs and the downright nasty ample opportunity to grass up their neighbours for no other reason than that they felt like it."

I know the term from my time in the UK, but I wondered if anyone has any insight where it comes from. It seems to be a British term since this definition doesn't appear in American dictionaries I've looked in. Why "grass"?

Curiously,

Camel

Grass ESC 11/24/02
- Excellent Word Camel 11/24/02
  - Excellent. A bit more James Briggs 11/25/02