tell1
/tɛl
/verb (past and past participle told /təʊld/)
1 [reporting verb] Communicate information to someone in spoken or written words: [with object and clause]: I told her you were coming [with object and direct speech]: ‘We have nothing in common,’ she told him [with object]: he’s telling the truth [with two objects]: we must be told the facts...
- In other words, telling the plain truth probably would have been sufficient.
- Dad was still telling me how proud he was of me.
- One doctor told the conference he sees 50 patients a day.
Synonyms
inform, let know, notify, apprise, make aware, mention something to, acquaint with, advise, put in the picture, brief, fill in, break the news to;
alert, warn, forewarn
informal clue in
speak, utter, say, voice, state, declare;
communicate, make known, impart, divulge, announce, proclaim, broadcast;
relate, recount, narrate, give an account of, set forth, unfold, retail, report, chronicle, recite, rehearse, describe, portray, sketch, delineate, depict, paint, weave, spin
1.1 [with object and infinitive] Order or advise someone to do something: tell him to go away...
- With a standing order, you tell your bank to pay a fixed sum at a regular interval to an organisation or individual.
- The jury normally receives an order from the court telling it to accept the laws as they are.
- The same lawyers told him to bring charges to a civil court and the sports court of arbitrage.
Synonyms
instruct, order, give orders, command, direct, charge, enjoin, call on, require
literary bid
1.2 [with object] Relate (a story): he tried to make the children laugh by telling jokes [with two objects]: tell me the story again...
- Global stars they may be, but they created a warm, homely atmosphere, joking and telling stories about their family.
- Another way of using language to cheer someone up is by telling stories and jokes.
- He was telling stories and jokes and had the attention of us all as he was pretty good at it.
1.3 [with object] Reveal (information) to someone in a non-verbal way: the figures tell a different story [with two objects]: the smile on her face told him everything...
- Within families a lot happens on the periphery and the most telling details are often seen out of the corner of one's eye.
- Lauren relates her story in a simple time sequence and gives telling details which make the narration gripping.
- However, a more telling statistic would be loss and damage rate per 1,000 weapons passes.
Synonyms
reveal, show, be/give evidence of, disclose, indicate, convey, signify;
display, exhibit
1.4 [no object] Divulge confidential or private information: promise you won’t tell...
- And if Alan has whispered any secrets, she's not telling!
- Please don't tell, because I don't want to lose readers.
Synonyms
give the game away, talk, tell tales, open one's mouth, tattle
informal spill the beans, let the cat out of the bag, blab
British informal blow the gaff
1.5 [no object] (tell on) informal Inform someone of the misdemeanours of: friends don’t tell on each other...
- ‘There are many cases where students have been told they'll be kicked out if they don't tell on their friends,’ says Manfred.
- Luckily for both of us, Tanya was not in the room at the time so she would never know about any of what happened because I knew that none of my friends were going to tell on me.
- And then you can send off vindictive messages to the spammers, telling them you told on them.
Synonyms
inform on/against, tell tales on, give away, denounce, sell out, stab someone in the back
informal split on, blow the whistle on, rat on, peach on, squeal on, squeak on, stitch up, do the dirty on, sell down the river
British informal grass on, sneak on, shop
North American informal rat out, drop a/the dime on, finger
Australian/New Zealand informal dob on, pimp on, pool, shelf, put someone's pot on
rare delate
2 [with clause] Decide or determine correctly or with certainty: you can tell they’re in love I couldn’t tell if he believed me...
- She can tell that for once Jason is surprised and she decides that that is a good thing.
- You can tell that they're starting to like you, that they want to trust you.
- I can tell that this is going to be one of those long-winded, rambling posts about nothing at all.
Synonyms
ascertain, decide, determine, work out, make out, deduce, discern, perceive, see, identify, recognize, understand, comprehend;
be sure, be certain
informal figure out, get a fix on
British informal suss out
2.1 [with object and adverbial] Perceive (the difference between one person or thing and another): I can’t tell the difference between margarine and butter...
- He can't tell the difference between the truth and what his lawyer is telling him.
- Personally, I can't tell the difference between diamonds and bits of clear broken glass!
- He's the only person at the bar who can't tell the difference between beer and water.
Synonyms
distinguish, differentiate, tell apart, discriminate
3 [no object] (Of an experience or period of time) have a noticeable, typically harmful, effect on someone: the strain of supporting the family was beginning to tell on him...
- We just did six gigs in seven days so it's told on him a bit.
- The pressure told on both sets of players as the game got bogged down in a midfield melee with precious little invention from the teams.
- Confinement and want of fresh air was beginning to tell on her health and spirits.
Synonyms
take its toll on, leave its mark on, have an adverse effect on, affect
3.1(Of a particular factor) play a part in the success or otherwise of someone or something: lack of fitness told against him on his first run of the season...
- Five pit stops against the winner's two was what told against the other two pilots.
- His personal failings also seem to have increased the strain and told against him.
- I believe one of them spoke of how her size had told against her when auditioning, even though her voice had been quite acceptable.
4 archaic Count (the members of a group): the shepherd had told all his sheep...
- He told the number of girls and officers standing in a line.
- He told the number of school that they had established, and how they obtained their scholars.
noun
(Especially in poker) an unconscious action that is thought to betray an attempted deception.But I think you could waste a poker lifetime looking for tells like those....
- Authentic tells are unbeknownst to the player and are unconscious.
- This book teaches you how to interpret tells, such as subtle shrugs, sighs, shaky hands, eye contact and much, much more.
Phrases
as far as one can tell
I tell you (or I can tell you)
I (or I'll) tell you what
I told you (so)
tell one's beads
tell someone's fortune
tell it like it is
tell its own tale (or story)
tell me about it
tell me another
tell something a mile off
tell that to the marines
tell the time (or tell time)
tell someone where to get off (or where they get off)
tell someone where to put (or what to do with) something
that would be telling
there is no telling
to tell (you) the truth
you're telling me
Phrasal verbs
tell someone off
Derivatives
tellable
- I mentioned in Chapter 2 that ‘narrative display texts’, a class which includes both literary narratives and stories people tell one another, circulate because their stories are tellable, ‘worth it’.
- Therefore, instead of a final dispensation, the story of a monster at the limit of the tellable concludes irresolutely, even incoherently.
- Stories must be tellable in quick, simple images.
Origin
Old English tellan 'relate, count, estimate', of Germanic origin; related to German zählen 'reckon, count', erzählen 'recount, relate', also to tale.
In Old English tell meant ‘to count’, a sense that is still seen in the term teller (Middle English) for a bank official. The meaning ‘to disclose, reveal’ does not appear until medieval times. To tell tales out of school is to gossip or reveal secrets about the wrongdoing or faults of someone else. In Old English untold meant ‘not counted, unspecified’. In late Middle English this became ‘not able to be counted’ (untold suffering). See also marine, talk
Rhymes
tell2
/tɛl/noun Archaeology
(In the Middle East) an artificial mound formed by the accumulated remains of ancient settlements.He narrowly escaped being blown up by a mine when he was exploring a tell outside the city....
- Ancient cities are now identified by the mounds raised above the surrounding terrain, called tells.
- In the digital elevation model the small conical mound of a tell is represented by a characteristic point pattern, superposed onto the natural topography.
Origin
Mid 19th century: from Arabic tall 'hillock'.