Other forms: tip-offs
A tip-off is a private warning that something is about to happen. Somebody knew, and told you first.
Police and journalists both work on them, and acting on a tip-off is the standard formula in a news report about a raid. The source is usually anonymous, which is the whole point. The verb is to tip somebody off. There is a completely separate basketball sense, since the tip-off is the jump ball that starts a game, and from that it means the start of anything.
1nountip-offA piece of private information warning of something.
“They acted on a tip-off from a neighbour.”
Deverbal from tip off.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove, Spying & Secrecy
First appears in chapter 34 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word