tale
Pronunciation
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈteɪl/
tale (plural tales)
- An account of an asserted fact or circumstance; a rumour; a report, especially an idle or malicious story; a piece of gossip or slander; a lie.
- Don't tell tales!
- A rehearsal of what has occurred; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story.
- the Canterbury Tales
- 1631, John Milton, "L'Allegro":
- And every shepherd tells his tale
- Under the hawthorn in the dale.
- A number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an enumeration.
- 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, Book I, Preface, §4:
- the ignorant, […] who measure by tale, and not by weight
- 1602, Richard Carew (antiquary), Survey of Cornwall
- In packing, they keep a just tale of the number that every hogshead containeth ...
- 1843 Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. 5, Twelfth Century
- They proceeded with some rigour, these Custodiars; took written inventories, clapt-on seals, exacted everywhere strict tale and measure
- 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, Book I, Preface, §4:
- (slang) The fraudulent opportunity presented by a confidence man to the mark or victim.
- (obsolete) Number; tally; quota.
- 1611, King James Version, Exodus 5:8:
- And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.
- 1697, John Dryden, The Works of Virgil, Pastoral III:
- Both number twice a day the milky dams
- And once she takes the tale of all the lambs.
- 1611, King James Version, Exodus 5:8:
- (obsolete) Account; estimation; regard; heed.
- (obsolete) Speech; language.
- (obsolete) A speech; a statement; talk; conversation; discourse.
- (legal, obsolete) A count; declaration.
- (rare or archaic) A number of things considered as an aggregate; sum.
- (rare or archaic) A report of any matter; a relation; a version.
- 1605, Francis Bacon, Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human, Volume I, Chapter IX:
- […] birds […] are aptest by their voice to tell tales what they find; and likewise by the motion of their flight to express the same.
- 1605, Francis Bacon, Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human, Volume I, Chapter IX:
- French: conte
- German: Märchen fairy tale, Sage, Geschichte, Erzählung
- Italian: racconto, favola, fiaba
- Portuguese: conto, história, fábula
- Russian: расска́з
- Spanish: cuento, historia
tale (tales, present participle taling; past and past participle taled)
- (dialectal or obsolete) To speak; discourse; tell tales.
- (dialectal, chiefly, Scotland) To reckon; consider (someone) to have something.
tale (plural tales)
- Alternative form of tael
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003