Word.ws English Dictionary

blew the whistle

blew the whistle is the simple past of blow the whistle.

Meaning of blow the whistle

Verb

blow the whistle (third-person singular simple present blows the whistle, present participle blowing the whistle, simple past blew the whistle, past participle blown the whistle)

  1. (idiomatic, usually) To disclose information to the public or to appropriate authorities concerning the illegal or socially harmful actions of a person or group, especially a corporation or government agency.
    • In some jurisdictions, it is illegal to fire a person for blowing the whistle on an employer.
    Synonyms:
    tattle, tell on
  2. (team sports) To make a piercing sound which signals a referee's action or the end of a game.

Questions about blew the whistle

What is blew the whistle the simple past of?
Blew the whistle is the simple past of blow the whistle.

Words near blew the whistle in the dictionary

  1. blew the doors off
  2. blew the gaff
  3. blew the grampus
  4. blew the lid off
  5. blew the roof off
  6. blew the whistle
  7. blew this pop stand
  8. blew this popsicle stand
  9. blew this taco stand
  10. blew through
  11. blew to kingdom come

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: blew the whistle (page history and authors); blow the whistle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “blew the whistle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blew_the_whistle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.