inform

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inform (one) about (something)

To share information about something with one. Have you informed Phil about the time change for Saturday's dinner? Don't worry, I'll inform the investors about your illness, and we'll reschedule the meeting.
See also: inform

inform (one) of (something)

To share information about something with one. Have you informed Phil of the time change for Saturday's dinner? Don't worry, I'll inform the investors of your illness, and we'll reschedule the meeting.
See also: inform, of

inform against (one)

To share or reveal compromising or incriminating information about one, especially to the police or other figures of authority. If you inform against him to the cops, he'll definitely send some of his goons out after you. Yeah, I know about your shady deals, but I didn't inform against you, I swear!
See also: inform

inform on (one)

To share or reveal compromising or incriminating information about one, especially to the police or other figures of authority. If you inform on him to the cops, he'll definitely send some of his goons out after you. Yeah, I know about your shady deals, but I didn't inform on you, I swear!
See also: inform, on
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

inform on someone

to tell the authorities about someone; to tattle on someone. I am going to have to inform on you. Liz informed on Ken to their mother.
See also: inform, on

inform someone about someone or something

to tell someone about someone or something. How is my friend Tom getting on? I asked you to inform me about him from time to time. Please inform me about the state of the contract for the book.
See also: inform

inform someone of something

to tell someone a fact. Please inform Sally of my decision. Sally has been informed of your decision.
See also: inform, of

inform someone on someone

to tattle (on someone) (to someone). I will inform the teacher on you! Billy informed his mother on Bobby.
See also: inform, on
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

inform on

or inform against
v.
To disclose confidential or incriminating evidence about someone to an authority: The FBI agent informed on the drug dealers. You can't force me to inform against my own family.
See also: inform, on
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs. Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive ?
* In what ways does the historical information regarding penal reform in the eighteenth century inform our understanding of Defoe's novel?
But I do want them to recognize that many of the assumptions and methods that inform our approach to the novel derive from a particular school of criticism, and I discuss with them the theoretical underpinnings of New Historical criticism.
I also assign a few examples of historically informed criticism of novels we have studied, thereby providing students with models of how to incorporate historical information into a literary analysis [1].
Teaching the novel in context
The counselor agrees to keep the identity of the student confidential, if possible, and informs the student he will report the information, the history teacher's name, and the four students' names to the principal.
At the end of the third week, the counselor informs the intern that she will be asking the university to find another internship site for him and will be giving him an unsatisfactory evaluation for the time he has been under her supervision.
A counselor in a new high school was trying to decide how she should inform all students of the meaning of confidentiality in counseling situations and give them information regarding the limits of confidentiality.
An ethics quiz for school counselors. (Special issue: legal and ethical issues in school counseling)
However, when Alice informs Jones that her embarrassment in the restaurant stems from her awareness that white people know" 'just what we are' " (60), he becomes infuriated and condemns Alice for being embarrassed to be black.
For this criticism to be productive, Awkward argues, black men must eschew "traditional patriarchal desires for control and erasure of the 'female,'" and perform "sophisticated, informed, and contentious critiques of phallocentric pract ices ...
Love Jones: a black male feminist critique of Chester Himes's If He Hollers Let Him Go
The auditor is required to inform the audit committee about any uncorrected misstatements.
Proposed omnibus SAS encourages managers to report errors
Though this impulse has much in common with the efforts of a generation of social historians to tell the story of ordinary people from the "bottom up," it is significant that most film scholarship has not been rooted in the discipline of history, but in recent humanist concern for textual analysis informed by literary and cultural theory.
When she emphasizes how producers and moralists envisaged the silent film as the means to create a universal language that repressed the dialects and views of immigrant audiences, when she explains that early film titles and stories were aimed to assimilate a diverse and polyglot audience into the values promoted by the educated, and when she points out that popular art derived from the lower classes was being legitimized in terms of standards derived from high culture, she provides us with persuasive evidence that will inform all future discussion of the industry.
Babel and Babylon: Spectatorship in American Silent Film
Informed consent is both a legal and ethical principle requiring school counselors to adequately disclose to clients potential risks, benefits, and alternatives to proposed counseling.
Based on developmental theories (e.g., Piaget), most counselors would assume that there is a stage at which the developing young person could understand the concept of secrets and could be involved in making informed decisions about confidentiality.
Privacy and confidentiality in school counseling. (Special issue: legal and ethical issues in school counseling)
It wasn't until the turn of the 20th century that the ideal of an independent, rational, informed citizen became dominant, and it was in that context that rational, informed, "objective" news became central to our vision of democracy.
Gans then moves beyond the informed citizen" ideology in a discussion of "The Problem of News Effects," summarizing the different social functions the news may have.
Journalism's identity crisis: what is the news for?
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