tale (redirected from tells tales)

tale  (tl)

n.

1. A recital of events or happenings; a report or revelation: told us a long tale of woe.

2. A malicious story, piece of gossip, or petty complaint.

3. A deliberate lie; a falsehood.

4. A narrative of real or imaginary events; a story.

5. Archaic A tally or reckoning; a total.

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

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tale

Noun

1. a report, account, or story: everyone had their own tale to tell about the flood

2. a malicious piece of gossip

3. tell tales

a. to tell fanciful lies

b. to report malicious stories or trivial complaints, esp. to someone in authority

4. tell a tale to reveal something important

5. tell its own tale to be self-evident [Old English talu]

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Tale a number of things; a list or series; a tally or total.

Examples: an exact tale of the dead bodies, 1722; tale of fair children, 1864; goodly tale of folios, 1826; of lambs (the total number), 1697; tale of oysters (quantity by which they are sold), 1594; of good works, 1732.

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	tale - a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program; "his narrative was interesting"; "Disney's stories entertain adults as well as children" narration, narrative, story tearjerker - an excessively sentimental narrative subject matter, content, message, substance - what a communication that is about something is about tall tale - an improbable (unusual or incredible or fanciful) story folk tale, folktale - a tale circulated by word of mouth among the common folk sob story, sob stuff - a sentimental story (or drama) of personal distress; designed to arouse sympathy fairy story, fairy tale, fairytale - a story about fairies; told to amuse children nursery rhyme - a tale in rhymed verse for children
	2.	tale - a trivial lie; "he told a fib about eating his spinach"; "how can I stop my child from telling stories?" fib, taradiddle, tarradiddle, story lie, prevarication - a statement that deviates from or perverts the truth cock-and-bull story, fairy story, fairy tale, fairytale, song and dance - an interesting but highly implausible story; often told as an excuse

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tale

noun 1. story, narrative, anecdote, account, relation, novel, legend, fiction, romance, saga, short story, yarn (informal) fable, narration, conte (French) spiel (informal) urban myth, urban legend

noun 2. lie, fabrication, falsehood, fib, untruth, spiel (informal) tall story (informal) rigmarole, cock-and-bull story (informal)

Translations

tale [teɪl] n (= story) → cuento (= account); relación f;

to tell tales (fig) → contar chismes

tale [teɪl] n (= story) → conte m, histoire f (= account); récit m;

(pej) → histoire;

to tell tales (fig) → rapporter

tale [teɪl] n → Geschichte f;

to tell tales (to sb) [child] → (jdm) Geschichten erzählen

tale [teɪl] n → racconto, storia;

(pej) → fandonia;

to tell tales → fare la spia

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tale

n tale [teil]

1 a story He told me the tale of his travels. verhaal حِكايَه، قِصَّه приказка vyprávění beretning die Geschichte ιστορία, αφήγηση historia, relato jutt, lugu داستان tarina conte, récit סִיפּוּר कहानी priča, pripovjest történet kisah saga, frásögn storia, resoconto 話 이야기 istorija, pasakojimas, pasaka stāsts cerita verhaal fortelling, historie opowiadanie história poveste, basm история; рассказ príbeh, historka zgodba priča berättelse, historia นิทาน öykü, masal 故事 історія کہاني câu chuyện 故事

2 an untrue story; a lie He told me he had a lot of money, but that was just a tale. storie كِذْبَه измислица smyšlenka; lež skrøne das Märchen παραμύθι mentira, trola väljamõeldis شایعه satu histoire שֶׁקֶר अफवाह bajka, izmišljotina mese kebohongan lygasaga, uppspuni bugia, frottola 嘘 거짓말 pramanas izdomājums; pasakas bohong leugen skrøne; løgn bujda mentira născocire выдумки výmysel; klamstvo pravljica laž lögn[] เรื่องโกหก yalan, maval 荒誕故事；謊言 вигадка, побрехенька افسانہ chuyện bịa đặt 荒诞故事；谎言