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)
- 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.
- To make a piercing sound which signals a referee's action or the end of a game.
Forms of whistle blow
| third-person singular present | whistle blows |
|---|---|
| present participle | whistle blowing |
| past | whistle blew |
| past participle | whistle 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
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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “whistle blow.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/whistle_blow. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
