English Dictionary

telltale

/ˈtɛlteɪl/

noun

One who divulges private information with intent to hurt others. / (chiefly US, slang) Tattletale; squealer. / An indicator, such as a warning light, that serves to warn of a hazard or problem.

The telltale signs of a liar are often subtle.

意味（1）

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.

意味（2）

(chiefly US, slang) Tattletale; squealer.

Try to teach your child that there's a time to intervene and a time to mind your own business. Nobody loves a telltale.

意味（3）

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.

意味（4）

(figuratively) Something that serves to reveal something else.

The telltale was the lipstick on his shirt collar.

意味（5）

(music) A movable piece of ivory, lead, or other material, connected to the bellows of an organ, whose position indicates when the wind is exhausted.

意味（6）

(nautical) 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.

意味（7）

(nautical) A mechanical attachment to the steering wheel, which, in the absence of a tiller, shows the position of the helm.

意味（8）

(nautical) A compass in the cabin of a vessel, usually placed where the captain can see it at all hours, and thus inform himself of the vessel's course.

意味（9）

(engineering) A machine or contrivance for indicating or recording something, particularly for keeping a check upon employees (factory hands, watchmen, drivers, etc.) by revealing to their employers what they have done or omitted.

意味（10）

A bird, the tattler.

意味（11）

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 Apuleius, a neo-platonist priest in the second century A.D.