English Dictionary

tell

[tʰɛl]

verb

(transitive, archaic outside of idioms) To count, reckon, or enumerate. / (transitive, ditransitive) To narrate. / (transitive, ditransitive) To convey by speech; to say.

Can you tell me the time?

意味（1）

(transitive, archaic outside of idioms) To count, reckon, or enumerate.

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

意味（2）

(transitive, ditransitive) To narrate.

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

意味（3）

(transitive, ditransitive) To convey by speech; to say.

Finally, someone told him the truth. He seems to like to tell lies.

意味（4）

(transitive) To instruct or inform.

Please tell me how to do it.

意味（5）

(transitive) To order; to direct, to say to someone.

Tell him to go away.

意味（6）

(transitive or intransitive) To discern, notice, identify or distinguish.

Can you tell whether those flowers are real or silk, from this distance? No, there's no way to tell.

意味（7）

(transitive) To reveal.

Time will tell what became of him.

意味（8）

(intransitive) To be revealed.

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.

意味（9）

(intransitive) To have an effect, especially a noticeable one; to be apparent, to be demonstrated.

Sir Gerald was moving slower; his wounds were beginning to tell.

意味（10）

(transitive) To use (beads or similar objects) as an aid to prayer.

意味（11）

(intransitive, childish) To inform someone in authority about a wrongdoing.

I saw you steal those sweets! I'm telling!

意味（12）

(authorship, intransitive) To reveal information in prose through outright expository statement -- contrasted with show

Maria rewrote the section of her novel that talked about Meg and Sage's friendship to have less telling and more showing.