to inform
15
6.8
- verb
- /ɪnˈfɔrm/
- Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to inform you there is a criminal in our midst.
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Watch on YouTubeLook at the people willing to inform on their neighbors.
- Look at the people willing to inform on their neighbors.
- Someone has apparently contacted child services in our area and informed them that we are drug users.
- Excuse me, but there's two reasons why I don't think he informed on it.
- One of them cut me with a typical kind of razor blade in the toothbrush thing because I wouldn't inform on them.
Examples
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The whistleblower decided to inform the authorities about the illegal activities happening in the company.
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Look at the people willing to inform on their neighbors.
-
When they brought me in for questioning, I informed on my friends the very first day.
Fiction book (1991) -
I informed SIS, they've made note of it, but it is not illegal to phone someone.
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The man, who asked to remain anonymous, informed the police of the woman's daring attempt to rescue him and praised her bravery in bringing him down off the mountain all on her own.
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To protect her community, she chose to inform on the drug dealers operating nearby.
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He felt obligated to inform the police about his neighbor's suspicious behavior.
Synonyms
688
2.7
Report someone's actions to the police or an authority
80
8.6
To tell the police or another authority about someone's bad action, betraying their trust
51
7.9
To secretly tell the police or a person in charge about someone's bad actions
47
4.4
To report to a person in charge that someone did something wrong so they get in trouble
39
5.1
To tell the authorities or the public about wrongdoing
24
4.6
Tell someone's secret to other people
10
7.0
Tell a person in charge about someone else's bad actions in a childish way
2
9.9
To tell authorities secret information about someone to get them in trouble
1
6.5
Tell authorities about someone, often exposing them to punishment
1
8.0
To tell the police or a manager that someone did something wrong
1
9.9
To tell the police or a teacher that someone did something wrong
1
8.4
To tell secret information to the police or other officials
Antonyms
How Official
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word inform can also mean 'to tell on' someone; it grew from the same idea of giving facts for official use, coming from in- 'into' and formare 'to form'. So to inform on someone is to report them to the police or other authorities.