tell

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   discern or comprehend

   I could tell that they were unhappy, but I didn't know what I could do about it.

2. 2
   verb

   give evidence

   I was debating whether or not I should tell who chipped the table when the door opened.

3. 3
   verb

   inform positively and with certainty and confidence

   I tell you that bird is a crook!

4. 4
   verb

   Mental senses related to determining, reckoning, or perceiving

   All told, there were over a dozen.  Can you tell time on a clock?  He had untold wealth.

5. 5
   verb

   Social senses of communicating

   I want to tell a story;  I want to tell you a story.

6. 6
   verb

   Abstract senses related to showing or revealing

   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.

7. 7
   noun

   A giveaway; something that unintentionally reveals or hints at a secret.

   Those whose business it is to verify luxury bags insist, at least publicly, that there’s always a “tell” to a superfake.

8. 8
   noun

   That which is told; a tale or account.

   April 4, 1743, Horace Walpole, letter to Sir Horace Mann I am at the end of my tell.

Etymology

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. More at tale.