telltale

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   One who divulges private information with intent to hurt others.

   Your husband is at hand; I heare his Trumpet, / We are not tell-tales, Madam; feare you not.

2. 2
   noun

   An indicator, such as a warning light, that serves to warn of a hazard or problem.

   A railroad company, which has properly erected a “telltale,” or signal board, to give warning of the approach of a train to a bridge and which lights the place at night by an electric light, is not responsible for injury caused at night by the “telltale” to a brakeman who had been passing under it at regular intervals for five weeks, though when injured he was standing upon a new car higher than those before used, and though he ad received no warning from the company as to the danger of standing upon such a car while passing under the "telltale".

3. 3
   noun

   Something that serves to reveal something else.

   The telltale was the lipstick on his shirt collar.

4. 4
   noun

   A length of yarn or ribbon attached to a sail or shroud etc to indicate the direction of the flow of the air relative to the boat.

   The sailmakers mistake can be an excellent way to lose a race as the telltale signals were disturbed and confusing.

5. 5
   noun

   A story or fable that has a moral or message.

   "Metamorphoses . . ." is the title of a book of telltales (or serialised fables) written by Lucius Apulei¡us, a neo-platonist priest in the second century A.D.

6. 6
   adj

   Revealing something, especially something not intended to be known.

   I noticed the snow was dirty, a telltale sign of recent human presence.

7. 7
   adj

   disclosing unintentionally

8. 8
   noun

   someone who gossips indiscreetly

Etymology

From tell + tale, perhaps dissimilated from earlier taleteller, from Middle English tale tellere (literally “tale teller”).