King James Bible Dictionary

TELL, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive told. [Latin telum; Latin appello and peal, Latin pello.]

1. To utter; to express in words; to communicate to others.

I will not eat till I have told my errand. Genesis 24:23.

2. To relate; to narrate; to rehearse particulars; as, to tell a story. Genesis 37:16.

And not a man appears to tell their fate.

3. To teach; to inform; to make known; to show by words. tell us the way.

Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Gen 12.

4. To discover; to disclose; to betray.

They will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. Numbers 14:14.

5. To count; to number.

Look now towards heaven, and tell the stars. Gen 15.

6. To relate in confession; to confess or acknowledge.

TELL me now what thou hast done. Joshua 7:19.

7. To publish.

TELL it not in Gath. 2 Samuel 1:4.

8. To unfold; to interpret; to explain. Ezekiel 24:19.

9. To make excuses.

Tush, never tell me. [Not elegant.]

10. To make known.

Our feelings tell us how long they ought to have submitted.

11. To discover; to find; to discern. The colors are so blended that I cannot tell where one ends and the other begins.

TELL, though equivalent in some respects to speak and say, has not always the same application. We say, to tell this, that or what, to tell a story, to tell a word, to tell truth or falsehood, to tell a number, to tell the reasons, to tell something or nothing; but we never say, to tell a speech, discourse or oration, or to tell an argument or a lesson. It is much used in commands. tell me the whole story; tell me all you know, or all that was said. tell has frequently the sense of narrate; which speak and say have not.

TELL, verb intransitive To give an account; to make report.

--That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works. Psalms 36:1.

To tell of

To tell on - to inform. You must not disobey; I will tell of you if you do. This is a common popular use of the word. To tell on, is quite vulgar as well as improper.

TELL'ER, noun One that tells, relates or communicates the knowledge of something.

1. One who numbers.

2. In the exchequer of England, there are four officers called tellers, whose business is to receive all moneys due to the crown, and throw down a bill through a pipe into the tally-court, where it is received by the auditor's clerks, who write the words of the bill on a tally, and deliver it to be entered by the clerk of the pell. The tally is then split by the two deputy chamberlains, who have their seals, and while the senior deputy reads the one part, the junior examines the other with the other two clerks. [This word is supposed to be from tally, being in ancient records written tallier.]

TEL'LINITE, noun [from tellina, a genus of testaceous animals.]

Petrified or fossil shells of the genus Tellina.

TELL'-TALE, adjective Telling tales; babbling.

TELL'-TALE, noun [tell and tale.] One who officiously communicates information of the private concerns of individuals; one who tells that which prudence should suppress, and which if told, often does mischief among neighbors.

1. A movable piece of ivory or lead on a chamber organ, that gives notice when the wind is exhausted.

2. In seamanship, a small piece of wood, traversing in a groove across the front of the poop deck, and which, by communicating with a small barrel on the axis of the steering wheel, indicates the situation of the helm.

TEL'LURATE, noun A compound of tellurium and a base.

TEL'LURETED, adjective tellureted hydrogen is hydrogen combined with tellurium in a gaseous form.

TELLU'RIUM, noun A metal recently discovered by Klaproth, combined with gold and silver in the ores, and received from the bannat of Temeswar. The ores are denominated native, graphic, yellow, and black. The native tellurium is of a color between tin and silver, and sometimes inclines to a steel gray. The graphic tellurium is stell gray; but sometimes white, yellow or lead gray. These ores are found massive or crystallized.