to tip off
68
6.8
- phrasal verb
- /tɪp ɔf/
:
avisar
- Thanks for tipping me off.
Well, this event is what tipped off the scientists to how powerful you are.
- Well, this event is what tipped off the scientists to how powerful you are.
- I believe he originally got tipped off about Diveroli in general I think.
- There were people in the police and in the army who were tipping Pablo off, who were, you know, kind of giving false leads and helping him.
- This is essentially the IT was really all tipped off by this guy named Yuri Nikolov.
- Basically they've done some some girls tip someone off to rob them.
- You know what really kind of like tipped off, tipped me off to or, or made me start leaning in the direction of its.
Examples
-
A friend of mine at Justice tipped me off.
-
Someone may have tipped off the wire services or cable TV.
Fiction book (1997) -
I think someone tipped them off.
-
We were just about to close the deal, but someone tipped him off.
-
Someone in Berlin has tipped him off that his girl has been seeing an American officer.
-
The police said that someone had tipped them off, and that the boys' fingerprints were at the construction site.
Fiction book (1993) -
Today, it was discovered by the soldiers very early on; perhaps they were tipped off by a collaborator.
Fiction book (1997) -
Someone in Palm Springs tipped off the local press... and they had a kind of welcome home parade for him.
-
Why this incident didn't tip off the Pacific Command to the impending attack is still not clearly understood.
Academic text (1991) -
The whistleblower decided to tip off the authorities about the illegal activities at the company.
Synonyms
129
5.3
To give someone secret information to help or warn them
41
6.8
To secretly tell the police about someone's illegal actions
1
3.9
To tell someone about something they did not know
Antonyms
How Secret
Surface Forms
Morphology
The verb 'tip' already denotes giving advance or secret information, and the particle 'off' does not produce a highly idiomatic meaning here; the phrasal verb simply expresses that same act of secretly informing. This is a productive, compositional phrasal verb pattern in English, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Tip off may come from the image of tip and off, like tipping a jar so a hidden thing falls out and is shown. So, to tip someone off means to quietly give information or a 'warning', revealing a 'secret' so they can avoid trouble.