"tell tales" meaning in English

See tell tales in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-au-tell tales.ogg [Australia]
Head templates: {{head|en|noun form}} tell tales
  1. plural of tell tale Tags: form-of, plural Form of: tell tale Related terms: dead men tell no tales, tell tales out of school
    Sense id: en-tell_tales-en-noun-U2yGP4ot Categories (other): English cognate expressions, English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English predicates, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English cognate expressions: 55 12 33 Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 55 8 37 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 62 5 33 Disambiguation of English predicates: 41 21 38 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 68 6 26

Verb

Audio: En-au-tell tales.ogg [Australia] Forms: tells tales [present, singular, third-person], telling tales [participle, present], told tales [participle, past], told tales [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|tell<,,told> tales}} tell tales (third-person singular simple present tells tales, present participle telling tales, simple past and past participle told tales)
  1. (idiomatic) To lie, to be making false claims. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-tell_tales-en-verb-dqBlvv9s Categories (other): English predicates Disambiguation of English predicates: 41 21 38
  2. (UK) To report someone for a wrongdoing. Tags: UK
    Sense id: en-tell_tales-en-verb-YlGUlmFn Categories (other): British English, English predicates Disambiguation of English predicates: 41 21 38

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for tell tales meaning in English (3.3kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "tells tales",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "telling tales",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "told tales",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "told tales",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "tell<,,told> tales"
      },
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      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "41 21 38",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English predicates",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Don't listen to him; he's telling tales.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To lie, to be making false claims."
      ],
      "id": "en-tell_tales-en-verb-dqBlvv9s",
      "links": [
        [
          "lie",
          "lie#Etymology 2"
        ],
        [
          "false",
          "false"
        ],
        [
          "claim",
          "claim"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To lie, to be making false claims."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To report someone for a wrongdoing."
      ],
      "id": "en-tell_tales-en-verb-YlGUlmFn",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK) To report someone for a wrongdoing."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "audio": "En-au-tell tales.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/0d/En-au-tell_tales.ogg/En-au-tell_tales.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/En-au-tell_tales.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "tell tales"
}

{
  "head_templates": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
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          "_dis": "55 12 33",
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          "_dis": "62 5 33",
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          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [],
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        {
          "_dis": "68 6 26",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
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            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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      ],
      "form_of": [
        {
          "word": "tell tale"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "plural of tell tale"
      ],
      "id": "en-tell_tales-en-noun-U2yGP4ot",
      "links": [
        [
          "tell tale",
          "tell tale#English"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "dead men tell no tales"
        },
        {
          "word": "tell tales out of school"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
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        "plural"
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    }
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  "sounds": [
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/En-au-tell_tales.ogg",
      "tags": [
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    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English non-lemma forms",
    "English noun forms",
    "English predicates",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "forms": [
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      "form": "tells tales",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
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    },
    {
      "form": "telling tales",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "told tales",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "told tales",
      "tags": [
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  "head_templates": [
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    }
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  "pos": "verb",
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      ],
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          "type": "example"
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      ],
      "glosses": [
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      ],
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          "lie#Etymology 2"
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        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To lie, to be making false claims."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To report someone for a wrongdoing."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK) To report someone for a wrongdoing."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/En-au-tell_tales.ogg",
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      "word": "dead men tell no tales"
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      "word": "tell tales out of school"
    }
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/En-au-tell_tales.ogg",
      "tags": [
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      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "tell tales"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.