Word.ws English Dictionary

whistle blow

whistle blow is the alternative form 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.

Forms of whistle blow

third-person singular presentwhistle blows
present participlewhistle blowing
pastwhistle blew
past participlewhistle blown

Origin of whistle blow

Back-formation from whistle blower.

Questions about whistle blow

What is whistle blow the alternative form of?
Whistle blow is the alternative form of blow the whistle.

Words near whistle blow in the dictionary

  1. whistful
  2. whisting
  3. whistlable
  4. whistle
  5. whistle and flute
  6. whistle blow
  7. whistle blower
  8. whistle blowers
  9. whistle board
  10. whistle boards
  11. whistle Dixie

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: whistle blow (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: “whistle blow.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/whistle_blow. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.