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Peach or grass

It's quite interesting of two words, grass and peach, their origin and different usages:

Peach
Chang Kuo-an and of his confederates (also military officers) for conspiring to defraud by means of forged seals, and states the penalty the law indicates. They stole blank paper used for writing orders from superior to inferior official on, and two official envelopes, and set to work again. When everything was ready, one of the number lost heart and ''peached." (Peking Gazzete Nov. 1873)

Peach: verb [ intrans. ] ( peach on) informal
inform on: the other members of the gang would not hesitate to peach on him if it would serve their purpose.

ORIGIN late Middle English : shortening of archaic appeach, from Old French empechier ‘impede’.

Grass

1 [Noun] Brit., informal

a police informer. [ORIGIN: perhaps related to the 19th-cent. rhyming slang grasshopper [copper: a police officer.] ]

2 [ intrans. ] Brit., informal

inform the police of criminal activity or plans : someone had grassed on the thieves.

These examples from book Grass by Cathy MacPhail:

Sharkey is a grass.

You don't grass on your friends...

Grasses die here. (form of plural)

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