blow the whistle

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Report wrongdoing or injustice to authorities

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Báo cáo hành vi sai trái hoặc bất công với cơ quan chức năng

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: make a loud, high-pitched sound with a whistle
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

She blew the whistle on the corrupt business practices

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “blow the whistle” mean?

Report wrongdoing or injustice to authorities Literally: make a loud, high-pitched sound with a whistle

Is “blow the whistle” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.