put someone on to

• put someone onto

put someone on to (third-person singular simple present puts someone on to, present participle putting someone on to, simple past and past participle put someone on to)

1. (idiomatic) To show; to draw someone's attention to something useful or interesting.

   Antonym: put off

   • 1989 May 6, Liz Galst, “Meet Meg Lacey, Private Heat”, in Gay Community News, page 7:

     O.D.'d, the coroner said. But Meg thought there was more to it. And there was. Much more. Thinking this might be a lead, Meg's friend Joanna, a lesbian and a prostitute, put her on to a bar called Kinky's. Kinky's is where pre-pubescent girls got recruited for kiddy porn films and working the streets.

   • 2020 January 8, Jenny Stevens, “Doors drummer John Densmore: 'It took me years to forgive Jim Morrison'”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-06-03:

     College put him on to jazz, and he worshipped at the altar of Coltrane and Davis.

   • 2020 December 11, Sam Sifton, “What to Cook This Weekend”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-11-25:

     My colleague John Eligon put me on to this excellent video explanation of and recipe for doubles, one of Trinidad and Tobago's greatest foods. That's on the weekend docket as well!

   • 2023 January 11, Richard Evans, “Our tip of the year is ’very cheap, very unloved and highly profitable’”, in Chris Evans, editor, The Daily Telegraph‎, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-01-28:

     It's time to name Questor's tip of the year and as usual we have sought the views of the fund manager who put us on to the best performer of last year under our "Follow the Money" banner.

• “put (someone) on to”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.