Link Centre Dictionary

tell

UK/tɛl/ US/tʰɛɫ/ very common informal
verb (8) noun (1)

verb

1.

express in words

  • “He said that he wanted to marry her”
  • “tell me what is bothering you”
  • “state your opinion”
  • “state your name”
Synonyms
2.

let something be known

  • “Tell them that you will be late”
3.

narrate or give a detailed account of

  • “Tell what happened”
  • “The father told a story to his child”
Synonyms
4.

give instructions to or direct somebody to do something with authority

  • “I said to him to go home”
  • “She ordered him to do the shopping”
  • “The mother told the child to get dressed”
Synonyms
5.

discern or comprehend

  • “He could tell that she was unhappy”
6.

inform positively and with certainty and confidence

  • “I tell you that man is a crook!”
Synonyms
7.

give evidence

  • “he was telling on all his former colleague”
Synonyms
8.

noun

1.

a Swiss patriot who lived in the early 14th century and who was renowned for his skill as an archer; according to legend an Austrian governor compelled him to shoot an apple from his son''s head with his crossbow (which he did successfully without mishap)

Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English tellen (“to count, tell”), from Old English tellan (“to count, tell”), from Proto-West Germanic *talljan, from Proto-Germanic *taljaną, *talzijaną (“to count, enumerate”), from Proto-Germanic *talą, *talō (“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”) and Dutch vertellen (“to tell”), Low German tellen (“to count”), German zählen, Faroese telja, Swedish tala (“to speak”). More at tale.

Phrases

  • a little bird told me
  • all told
  • as far as one can tell
  • can you tell us
  • dead giveaway
  • dead men can tell no tales
  • dead men tell no tales
  • does Macy's tell Gimbel's
  • don't pee in the wind and tell me it's raining

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

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See also

Related verbs

Entails

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.