1.To mention one by one, or piece by piece; to recount; to enumerate; to reckon; to number; to count; as, to tell money. "An heap of coin he told." "He telleth the number of the stars." "Tell the joints of the body."
2.To utter or recite in detail; to give an account of; to narrate. "Of which I shall tell all the array." "And not a man appears to tell their fate."
3.To make known; to publish; to disclose; to divulge. "Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?"
4.To give instruction to; to make report to; to acquaint; to teach; to inform. "A secret pilgrimage, That you to-day promised to tell me of?"
5.To order; to request; to command. "He told her not to be frightened."
6.To discern so as to report; to ascertain by observing; to find out; to discover; as, I can not tell where one color ends and the other begins.
7.To make account of; to regard; to reckon; to value; to estimate. (Obs.) "I ne told no dainity of her love." Note: Tell, though equivalent in some respect to speak and say, has not always the same application. We say, 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; as, tell me the whole story; tell me all you know.
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