2 Russian slang words about disclosure

Colloquial Russian language has a couple of words about disclosure: “спалить” and “пропалить”. Their meaning is almost the same and it is close to this: to discover the truth, to discover the information.

“спалить”
To discover somebody’s secret, to disclose somebody’s shady dealings, especially by seeing something what a person(s) is(are) doing. To see the process itself or the immediate result. Sometimes it may mean “to make public”.

The passive form is “спалиться”. This may mean “to accidentally disclose some information about oneself”. This word is also quite common in criminal slang. For example, when somebody is stealing something and fails.

“пропалить”
To have tracked down, to discover, to find out somebody’s dealings, especially by seeing something.