tell

tell ¹  (tl)

v. told (tld), tell·ing, tells

v.tr.

1. To give a detailed account of; narrate: tell what happened; told us a story.

2. To communicate by speech or writing; express with words: tell the truth; tell one's love.

3. To make known; reveal: tell a secret; tell fortunes.

4. To notify; inform.

5. To inform positively; assure: I tell you, the plan will work.

6. To give instructions to; direct: told the customers to wait in line.

7. To discover by observation; discern: could tell that he was upset.

8. To name or number one by one; count: telling one's blessings; 16 windows, all told.

v.intr.

1. To give an account or revelation: is prepared to break silence and tell.

2. To give evidence; inform: promised not to tell on her friend.

3. To have an effect or impact: In this game every move tells.

Phrasal Verb:

tell off Informal

To rebuke severely; reprimand.

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[Middle English tellen, from Old English tellan; see del-² in Indo-European roots.]

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tella·ble adj.

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tell

Verb

[telling, told]

1. to make known in words; notify: I told her what had happened

2. to order or instruct (someone to do something): he had been told to wait in the lobby

3. to give an account (of an event or situation): the President had been told of the developments

4. to communicate by words: he was woken at 5 am to be told the news

5. to discover, distinguish, or discern: she could tell that he was not sorry

6. to have or produce an impact or effect: the pressure had begun to tell on him

7. informal to reveal secrets or gossip

8. tell the time to read the time from a clock

9. you're telling me Slang I know that very well [Old English tellan]

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	Tell - 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) William Tell
Verb	1.	tell - express in words; "He said that he wanted to marry her"; "tell me what is bothering you"; "state your opinion"; "state your name" say, state present, lay out, represent - bring forward and present to the mind; "We presented the arguments to him"; "We cannot represent this knowledge to our formal reason" misstate - state something incorrectly; "You misstated my position" answer, reply, respond - react verbally; "She didn't want to answer"; "answer the question"; "We answered that we would accept the invitation" preface, premise, precede, introduce - furnish with a preface or introduction; "She always precedes her lectures with a joke"; "He prefaced his lecture with a critical remark about the institution" give tongue to, utter, express, verbalise, verbalize - articulate; either verbally or with a cry, shout, or noise; "She expressed her anger"; "He uttered a curse" announce, declare - announce publicly or officially; "The President declared war" enunciate, vocalise, vocalize, articulate - express or state clearly say - state as one's opinion or judgement; declare; "I say let's forget this whole business" get out - express with difficulty; "I managed to get out a few words" declare - state emphatically and authoritatively; "He declared that he needed more money to carry out the task he was charged with" declare - make a declaration (of dutiable goods) to a customs official; "Do you have anything to declare?" note, remark, mention, observe - make mention of; "She observed that his presentation took up too much time"; "They noted that it was a fine day to go sailing" add, append, supply - state or say further; "`It doesn't matter,' he supplied" explain - define; "The committee explained their plan for fund-raising to the Dean" give - convey or reveal information; "Give one's name" sum, summarise, summarize, sum up - be a summary of; "The abstract summarizes the main ideas in the paper"
	2.	tell - let something be known; "Tell them that you will be late" digress, divagate, stray, wander - lose clarity or turn aside especially from the main subject of attention or course of argument in writing, thinking, or speaking; "She always digresses when telling a story"; "her mind wanders"; "Don't digress when you give a lecture" inform - impart knowledge of some fact, state or affairs, or event to; "I informed him of his rights" bespeak, betoken, indicate, signal, point - be a signal for or a symptom of; "These symptoms indicate a serious illness"; "Her behavior points to a severe neurosis"; "The economic indicators signal that the euro is undervalued" disclose, let on, divulge, expose, give away, let out, reveal, unwrap, discover, bring out, break - make known to the public information that was previously known only to a few people or that was meant to be kept a secret; "The auction house would not disclose the price at which the van Gogh had sold"; "The actress won't reveal how old she is"; "bring out the truth"; "he broke the news to her"; "unwrap the evidence in the murder case" talk, spill - reveal information; "If you don't oblige me, I'll talk!"; "The former employee spilled all the details" publicize, bare, publicise, air - make public; "She aired her opinions on welfare" ingeminate, iterate, reiterate, repeat, restate, retell - to say, state, or perform again; "She kept reiterating her request" propagandise, propagandize - subject to propaganda annunciate, foretell, harbinger, herald, announce - foreshadow or presage impart, pass on, give, leave - transmit (knowledge or skills); "give a secret to the Russians"; "leave your name and address here"; "impart a new skill to the students" brush down, tell off - reprimand; "She told the misbehaving student off"
	3.	tell - narrate or give a detailed account of; "Tell what happened"; "The father told a story to his child" recount, narrate, recite inform - impart knowledge of some fact, state or affairs, or event to; "I informed him of his rights" relate - give an account of; "The witness related the events" crack - tell spontaneously; "crack a joke" yarn - tell or spin a yarn rhapsodise, rhapsodize - recite a rhapsody
	4.	tell - 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" order, enjoin, say direct - command with authority; "He directed the children to do their homework" instruct - give instructions or directions for some task; "She instructed the students to work on their pronunciation" command, require - make someone do something request - ask (a person) to do something; "She asked him to be here at noon"; "I requested that she type the entire manuscript" send for, call - order, request, or command to come; "She was called into the director's office"; "Call the police!" warn - ask to go away; "The old man warned the children off his property"
	5.	tell - discern or comprehend; "He could tell that she was unhappy" guess, infer - guess correctly; solve by guessing; "He guessed the right number of beans in the jar and won the prize"
	6.	tell - inform positively and with certainty and confidence; "I tell you that man is a crook!" assure avow, swan, swear, affirm, assert, aver, verify - to declare or affirm solemnly and formally as true; "Before God I swear I am innocent"
	7.	tell - give evidence; "he was telling on all his former colleague" evidence inform - act as an informer; "She had informed on her own parents for years" make out, discern, tell apart, spot, distinguish, pick out, recognise, recognize - detect with the senses; "The fleeing convicts were picked out of the darkness by the watchful prison guards"; "I can't make out the faces in this photograph"
	8.	tell - mark as different; "We distinguish several kinds of maple" differentiate, distinguish, secern, secernate, severalise, severalize, tell apart, separate know - be able to distinguish, recognize as being different; "The child knows right from wrong" identify, place - recognize as being; establish the identity of someone or something; "She identified the man on the 'wanted' poster" discriminate, know apart - recognize or perceive the difference label - distinguish (an element or atom) by using a radioactive isotope or an isotope of unusual mass for tracing through chemical reactions label - distinguish (as a compound or molecule) by introducing a labeled atom sex - tell the sex (of young chickens) individualise, individualize - make or mark or treat as individual; "The sounds were individualized by sharpness and tone" contrast - put in opposition to show or emphasize differences; "The middle school teacher contrasted her best student's work with that of her weakest student" severalise, severalize - distinguish or separate contradistinguish - distinguish by contrasting qualities decouple, dissociate - regard as unconnected; "you must dissociate these two events!"; "decouple our foreign policy from ideology" demarcate - separate clearly, as if by boundaries discriminate, single out, separate - treat differently on the basis of sex or race stratify - divide society into social classes or castes; "Income distribution often stratifies a society"

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tell

verb 1. inform, notify, make aware, say to, state to, warn, reveal to, express to, brief, advise, disclose to, proclaim to, fill in, speak about to, confess to, impart, alert to, divulge, announce to, acquaint with, communicate to, mention to, make known to, apprise, utter to, get off your chest (informal) let know

verb 2. describe, relate, recount, report, portray, depict, chronicle, rehearse, narrate, give an account of

verb 3. instruct, order, command, direct, bid, enjoin

verb 4. see, make out, discern, understand, discover, be certain, comprehend

verb 5. distinguish, discriminate, discern, differentiate, identify

verb 6. have or take effect, register, weigh, have force, count, take its toll, carry weight, make its presence felt

tell someone off reprimand, rebuke, scold, lecture, carpet (informal) censure, reproach, berate, chide, tear into (informal) read the riot act, reprove, upbraid, take to task, tick off (informal) bawl out (informal) chew out U.S., Canad. (informal) tear off a strip Brit. (informal) give a piece of your mind to, haul over the coals (informal) give a rocket to Brit., N.Z. (informal)

Translations

tell [pt, pp told] [tɛl, təuld] vt → decir (= relate) [+ story] → contar (= distinguish): to tell sth from → distinguir algo de

vi (= talk): to tell (of) → contar (= have effect); tener efecto;

to tell sb to do sth → decir a algn que haga algo;

to tell sb about sth → contar algo a algn;

to tell the time → dar or decir la hora;

can you tell me the time? → ¿me puedes decir la hora?;

(I) tell you what ... → fíjate ...;

I couldn't tell them apart → no podía distinguirlos

tell off vt to tell sb off → regañar a algn

tell on vt fus to tell on sb → chivarse de algn

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tell [told , pt, pp ] [tɛl, təuld] vt → dire (= relate) [+ story] → raconter (= distinguish);

to tell sth from → distinguer qch de vi (= talk);

to tell of → parler de (= have effect); se faire sentir, se voir;

to tell sb to do → dire à qn de faire;

to tell sb about sth [+ place, object etc] → parler de qch à qn;

(what happened etc) → raconter qch à qn;

to tell the time (= know how to) → savoir lire l'heure;

can you tell me the time? → pourriez-vous me dire l'heure?;

(I) tell you what, ... → écoute, ...;

I can't tell them apart → je n'arrive pas à les distinguer

tell off vt → réprimander, gronder

tell on vt fus (= inform against) → dénoncer, rapporter contre

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tell [tɛl] [told , pt, pp ] vt (= say) → sagen (= relate) [+ story] → erzählen (= distinguish);

to tell sth from → etw unterscheiden von (= be sure); wissen vi (= have an effect) → sich auswirken;

to tell sb to do sth → jdm sagen, etw zu tun;

to tell sb of or about sth → jdm von etw erzählen;

to be able to tell the time (know how to) → die Uhr kennen;

can you tell me the time? → können Sie mir sagen, wie spät es ist?;

(I) tell you what, let's go to the cinema → weißt du was? Lass uns ins Kino gehen!;

I can't tell them apart → ich kann sie nicht unterscheiden

tell off tell vt to tell sb off → jdn ausschimpfen

tell on tell vt fus (= inform against) → verpetzen

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tell pt, pp told [tɛl, təuld] vt → dire (= relate) [+ story] → raccontare (= distinguish): to tell sth from → distinguere qc da

vi (= have effect) → farsi sentire, avere effetto;

to tell sb to do → dire a qn di fare;

to tell sb about sth → dire a qn di qc; raccontare qc a qn;

to tell the time → leggere l'ora;

can you tell me the time? → può dirmi l'ora?;

(I) tell you what ... → so io che cosa fare ...;

I couldn't tell them apart → non riuscivo a distinguerli

tell off vt → rimproverare, sgridare

tell on vt fus (= inform against) → denunciare