to blow the whistle
37
5.1
- phrasal verb
- /bloʊ ðə ˈwɪsəl/
:
denunciar (a)
- Recently, Mr. John Stockwell blew the whistle on the CIA after having been employed as a higher-level manager.
- blow the whistle (reporting)
- blow the whistle externally
They are true believers and I think they still do believe that this can be fixed or they wouldn't have blown the whistle and they wouldn't continue to speak out.
- They are true believers and I think they still do believe that this can be fixed or they wouldn't have blown the whistle and they wouldn't continue to speak out.
- But I really applaud whistleblowers like, you know, the whistleblower who, who blew the whistle on the Trump call with Zelensky.
- So Tom Drake was the first person to blow the whistle on NS as warrantless wiretapping and his his story make your hair stand up.
- Why did, why did, why they blow the whistle there?
Examples
-
Eisenhower may have been the only president to blow the whistle on the great American swindle.
Academic text (2004) -
Whittaker Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley both tried to blow the whistle, and few listened, though history has vindicated them.
Blog text (27) -
There must be people who could blow the whistle and tell us more.
-
That person says, oh, she blew the whistle on us.
-
You thinking about blowing the whistle on me or something, huh?
-
Once she got what she was promised, she blew the whistle on you.
Blog text (17) -
...he attempted to blow the whistle on a conspiracy.
-
Furthermore, it's almost an ethical obligation to blow the whistle on behavior like this.
Blog text (4) -
An individual's decision to blow the whistle might be based upon organizational, situational, or personal factors.
Academic text (2013) -
The employee decided to blow the whistle on the company's illegal practices by reporting them to the authorities.
Synonyms
∞
2.7
Report someone's actions to the police or an authority
686
1.6
To tell someone in authority that a person has broken a rule or law
342
4.1
Reveal hidden facts or bad actions to people
234
4.1
To tell people information that was secret
164
4.5
To reveal secret information, often by mistake
143
4.6
Tell someone's secret to other people
76
8.6
To tell the police or another authority about someone's bad action, betraying their trust
41
6.8
To secretly tell the police about someone's illegal actions
36
7.9
To secretly tell the police or a person in charge about someone's bad actions
35
4.4
To report to a person in charge that someone did something wrong so they get in trouble
19
6.5
Tell authorities about someone, often exposing them to punishment
18
6.0
Tell a secret by accident before others know
11
6.3
To show someone has made a mistake or done something wrong, often by surprise
9
6.5
Look for and tell secret or bad things about someone to harm them
8
7.0
Tell a person in charge about someone else's bad actions in a childish way
8
6.8
Reveal secret information that shocks people
7
9.8
To tell the police about someone's crime, often secretly
5
5.1
To tell a secret that should be kept
5
7.5
To tell a person in charge that someone did something wrong to get them in trouble
1
6.3
Publicly say which people or groups did something wrong so others will say bad things about them
1
9.9
To tell the police or a teacher that someone did something wrong
1
7.9
To tell a secret carelessly or without meaning to
Antonyms
How Public
Surface Forms
Morphology
blow + the + whistle
The literal meanings of 'blow' and 'whistle' (to produce sound with a whistle) give a visible metaphor of sounding an alarm, so a learner might guess it signals or calls attention to something. However, the specific sense 'to report or expose wrongdoing' is a conventionalized, culturally bound extension that is not fully predictable from the parts without prior exposure, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The idiom blow the whistle comes from the image of someone literally blowing a small whistle to make people notice a problem, like a referee stopping a game or a guard sounding an alarm. So, to blow the whistle today means 'to report' or 'expose' wrong or illegal actions.