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Webster 1913 Edition

Tell

Tell

(tĕl)
,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Told
(tōld)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Telling
.]
[AS.
tellan
, from
talu
tale, number, speech; akin to D.
tellen
to count, G.
zählen
, OHG.
zellen
to count, tell, say, Icel.
telja
, Dan.
tale
to speak,
tælle
to count. See
Tale
that which is told.]
1.
To mention one by one, or piece by piece; to recount; to enumerate; to reckon; to number; to count;
as, to
tell
money
.
“An heap of coin he told.”
Spenser.
He
telleth
the number of the stars.
Ps. cxlvii. 4.
Tell
the joints of the body.
Jer. Taylor.
2.
To utter or recite in detail; to give an account of; to narrate.
Of which I shall
tell
all the array.
Chaucer.
And not a man appears to
tell
their fate.
Pope.
3.
To make known; to publish; to disclose; to divulge.
Why didst thou not
tell
me that she was thy wife?
Gen. xii. 18.
4.
To give instruction to; to make report to; to acquaint; to teach; to inform.
A secret pilgrimage,
That you to-day promised to
tell
me of?
Shakespeare
5.
To order; to request; to command.
He
told
her not to be frightened.
Dickens.
6.
To discern so as to report; to ascertain by observing; to find out; to discover;
as, I can not
tell
where one color ends and the other begins
.
7.
To make account of; to regard; to reckon; to value; to estimate.
[Obs.]
I ne
told
no dainity of her love.
Chaucer.
☞ Tell, though equivalent in some respect to speak and say, has not always the same application. We say, to tell truth or falsehood, to tell a number, to tell the reasons, to tell something or nothing; but we never say, to tell a speech, discourse, or oration, or to tell an argument or a lesson. It is much used in commands;
as,
tell
me the whole story;
tell
me all you know
.
To tell off
,
to count; to divide.
Sir W. Scott.
Syn. – To communicate; impart; reveal; disclose; inform; acquaint; report; repeat; rehearse; recite.

Tell

,
Verb.
I.
1.
To give an account; to make report.
That I may publish with the voice of thankgiving, and
tell
of all thy wondrous works.
Ps. xxvi. 7.
2.
To take effect; to produce a marked effect;
as, every shot
tells
; every expression
tells
.
To tell of
.
(a)
To speak of; to mention; to narrate or describe.
(b)
To inform against; to disclose some fault of.
–
To tell on
,
to inform against.
[Archaic & Colloq.]
Lest they should
tell on
us, saying, So did David.
1 Sam. xxvii. 11.

Tell

,
Noun.
That which is told; tale; account.
[R.]
I am at the end of my
tell
.
Walpole.

Tell

,
Noun.
[Ar.]
A hill or mound.
W. M. Thomson.

Webster 1828 Edition

Tell

TELL

,
Verb.
T.
pret. and pp. told. [L. telum; L.appello and peal, L. pello.]
1.
To utter; to express in words; to communicate to others.
I will not eat till I have told my errand. Gen.24.
2.
To relate; to narrate; to rehearse particulars; as, to tell a story. Gen.37.
And not a man appears to tell their fate.
3.
To teach; to inform; to make known; to show by words. Tell us the way.
Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Gen.12.
4.
To discover; to disclose; to betray.
They will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. Num.14.
5.
To count; to number.
Look now towards heaven, and tell the stars. Gen.15.
6.
To relate in confession; to confess or acknowledge.
Tell me now what thou hast done. Josh.7.
7.
To publish.
Tell it not in Gath. 2 Sam.1.
8.
To unfold; to interpret; to explain. Ezek.24.
9.
To make excuses.
Tush, never tell me. [Not elegant.]
10. To make known.
Our feelings tell us how long they ought to have submitted.
11. To discover; to find; to discern. The colors are so blended that I cannot tell where one ends and the other begins.
Tell, though equivalent in some respects to speak and say, has not always the same application. We say, to tell this, that or what, to tell a story, to tell a word, to tell truth or falsehood, to tell a number, to tell the reasons, to tell something or nothing; but we never say, to tell a speech, discourse or oration, or to tell an argument or a lesson. It is much used in commands. Tell me the whole story; tell me all you know, or all that was said. Tell has frequently the sense of narrate; which speak and say have not.

TELL

,
Verb.
I.
To give an account; to make report.
--That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works. Ps.36.
To tell of
To tell on - to inform. You must not disobey; I will tell of you if you do. This is a common popular use of the word. To tell on, is quite vulgar as well as improper.

Definition 2024

tell

tell

English

Verb

tell ‎(third-person singular simple present tells, present participle telling, simple past and past participle told)

  1. (transitive) To count, reckon, or enumerate.
    All told, there were over a dozen.  Can you tell time on a clock?  He had untold wealth.‎
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vii:
      And in his lap a masse of coyne he told, / And turned vpsidowne, to feede his eye / A couetous desire with his huge threasury.
    • 1875, Hugh MacMillan, The Sunday Magazine:
      Only He who made them can tell the number of the stars, and mark the place of each in the order of the one great dominant spiral.
  2. (transitive) To narrate.
    I want to tell a story;  I want to tell you a story.‎
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 7, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      “ […] Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing. Oh, dear, there's so much to tell you, so many warnings to give you, but all that must be postponed for the moment.”
  3. (transitive) To convey by speech; to say.
    Finally, someone told him the truth.  He seems to like to tell lies.‎
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 4, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      I told him about everything I could think of; and what I couldn't think of he did. He asked about six questions during my yarn, but every question had a point to it. At the end he bowed and thanked me once more. As a thanker he was main-truck high; I never see anybody so polite.
  4. (transitive) To instruct or inform.
    Please tell me how to do it.‎
    • Bible, Genesis xii. 18
      Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 5, in The Celebrity:
      But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, […] . We began to tell her about Mohair and the cotillon, and of our point of observation from the Florentine galleried porch, and she insisted she would join us there.
  5. (transitive) To order; to direct, to say to someone.
    Tell him to go away.‎
    • Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
      He told her not to be frightened.
    • 2012 October 25, John Noble Wilford, “Neil Armstrong, First Man on the Moon, Dies at 82”, in New York Times:
      Stability was restored, but once the re-entry propulsion was activated, the crew was told to prepare to come home before the end of their only day in orbit.
  6. (intransitive) To discern, notice, identify or distinguish.
    Can you tell whether those flowers are real or silk, from this distance?  No, there's no way to tell.‎
    • 1915, Emerson Hough, The Purchase Price, chapterI:
      Captain Edward Carlisle, soldier as he was, martinet as he was, felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, her alluring smile; he could not tell what this prisoner might do.
  7. (transitive) To reveal.
    Time will tell what became of him.‎
  8. (intransitive) To be revealed.
    • 1990, Stephen Coonts, Under Siege, 1991 Pocket Books edition, ISBN 0671742949, p.409:
      Cherry looks old, Mergenthaler told himself. His age is telling. Querulous — that's the word. He's become a whining, querulous old man absorbed with trivialities.
  9. (intransitive) To have an effect, especially a noticeable one; to be apparent, to be demonstrated.
    Sir Gerald was moving slower; his wounds were beginning to tell.‎
    • 1859 John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
      Opinion ought [… to give] merited honour to every one, whatever opinion he may hold […] keeping nothing back which tells, or can be supposed to tell, in their favour.
    • 2011 September 18, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport:
      But England's superior fitness told in the second half, with Delon Armitage, Manu Tuilagi and Chris Ashton (two) going over for tries to secure a bonus-point win.
  10. (transitive) To use beads or similar objects as an aid to prayer.
  11. (intransitive, childish) To inform someone in authority about a wrongdoing.
    I saw you steal those sweets! I'm going to tell!
Synonyms
Antonyms
  • (to instruct or inform): ask
Derived terms
Translations

Noun

tell ‎(plural tells)

  1. A reflexive, often habitual behavior, especially one occurring in a context that often features attempts at deception by persons under psychological stress (such as a poker game or police interrogation), that reveals information that the person exhibiting the behavior is attempting to withhold.
  2. (archaic) That which is told; a tale or account.
    • Walpole
      I am at the end of my tell.
  3. (Internet) A private message to an individual in a chat room; a whisper.
See also

Etymology 2

From Arabic تَلّ ‎(tall, “hill, elevation”), from Proto-Semitic *tall- ‎(“hill”).

Noun

tell ‎(plural tells)

  1. (archaeology) A mound, originally in the Middle East, over or consisting of the ruins of ancient settlements.

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: each · between · face · #175: tell · because · few · whom

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

tell

  1. imperative of telle

Etymology

From Middle English tellen ‎(“to count, tell”), from Old English tellan ‎(“to count, tell”), from Proto-Germanic *taljaną, *talzijaną ‎(“to count, enumerate”), from Proto-Germanic *talą, *talǭ ‎(“number, counting”), from Proto-Indo-European *dol- ‎(“calculation, fraud”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian tälle ‎(“to say; tell”), West Frisian telle ‎(“to count”), West Frisian fertelle ‎(“to tell, narrate”), Dutch tellen ‎(“to count”), Low German tellen ‎(“to count”) and förtellen ‎(“to tell, narrate”), Old High German zellen ‎(“to count”) (German zählen), German erzählen ‎(“to tell, recount”), Old Norse telja ‎(“to count, tell”) (Faroese telja). More at tale.

Pronunciation

  • enPR: tĕl, IPA(key): /tɛl/
  • Rhymes: -ɛl

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