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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
tip-off
noun
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
Tip-off is at 7:30 tonight in the Coliseum.
▪ Acting on a tip-off, customs officers seized 50 kilos of cocaine from a house in Leicester.
▪ Police were called to the hotel after a tip-off.
▪ The fact he hasn't called should be a tip-off that he's not interested.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A sure tip-off that you have structural problems is repeated ideas.
▪ Acting on a tip-off, they searched the car and its occupants.
▪ Even if the tip-off is anonymous, make it.
▪ The tip-off is your focus on performance that needs improvement, rather than focusing on your successes.
▪ The raid had been anticipated for months following a tip-off to the Metropolitan police.
▪ There was a climate of fear after anonymous tip-offs claiming that live weapons would be used.
▪ Unusual swimming patterns are often a tip-off that a whale is in danger.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
tip-off

1901 in reference to information, from tip (v.2) + off (adv.). From 1924 in basketball, from tip (v.3).

Wiktionary
tip-off

n. 1 (context idiomatic English) An obvious clue or indication. 2 (context idiomatic English) A report of suspicious behaviour, especially to an authority.

WordNet
tip-off
  1. n. inside information that something is going to happen

  2. the act of starting a basketball game with a jump ball [syn: tap-off]

Usage examples of "tip-off".

I lost a guy yesterday, a wharfie I had on me pay-roll - he kept an eye out what was coming in, gimme tip-offs if some other bastards were bringing in the stuff.

Quite accustomed to seeing their requests for cooperation ignored in over half the states, to seeing their loaned files unaccountably become missing, to see the quarry suddenly disappear after an anonymous tip-off, the Z men worked on as best they might at a task they realized was not in accordance with the wishes of the majority of their fellow countrymen.

The first twenty-two dealt with the everyday stuff, tip-offs regarding forthcoming sweetshop robberies, or those suspected of sneaking through the back doors of the local cinema without paying.

Mom brought it in, and a couple of the kids having birthdays were like twelve, was the private tip-off on who the cake was really for.

Deanna…” He interlaced his fingers, and the depth of his glowering was Deanna’s tip-off that he was thinking extremely hard.

But we go on risk assessment, it's all that we can afford to do unless we get a definite tip-off.