whistle-blower

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

Probably an allusion to a police officer blowing his or her whistle on observing a violation of the law.

Noun

whistle-blower (plural whistle-blowers)

1. (idiomatic) One who reports a problem or violation to the authorities; especially, an employee or former employee who reports a violation by an employer.

   We owe it to a small group of brave whistle-blowers that we know about the infractions at all.

Synonyms

• Wikisaurus:informant

Translations

one who reports a problem or violation to the authorities

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 告密者 (zh) (gàomìzhě), 舉報人, 举报人 (jǔbàorén)

• Czech: informátor m
• Dutch: klokkenluider (nl) m
• Finnish: ilmiantaja
• French: lanceur d'alerte (fr) m, dénonciateur (fr) m
• German: Hinweisgeber m, Hinweisgeberin f, Whistleblower m
• Hungarian: informátor (hu)
• Indonesian: pengungkap aib
• Italian: informatore (it) m
• Japanese: 内部告発者 (ないぶこくはつしゃ, naibukokuhatsusha)

• Norwegian: fløyteblåser m, varsler (no) m
• Portuguese: delator (pt)
• Russian: осведомитель (ru) m (osvedomítel'), осведомительница (ru) f (osvedomítel'nica), информатор (ru) m (informátor), (disparaging) доносчик (ru) m (donósčik), доносчица (ru) f (donósčica)
• Serbo-Croatian: zviždač m
• Spanish: revelador de secretos, delator (es) en su trabajo, alertador m
• Swedish: visselblåsare c

Related terms

• whistleblowing

See also

• blow the whistle
• tattletale