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verb Tell v. t. (past & past part. told; pres. part. telling) 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. To tell off, to count; to divide. Synonyms: To communicate; impart; reveal; disclose; inform; acquaint; report; repeat; rehearse; recite.
adverb Off adv. In a general sense, denoting from or away from; as: 1.Denoting distance or separation; as, the house is a mile off. 2.Denoting the action of removing or separating; separation; as, to take off the hat or cloak; to cut off, to pare off, to clip off, to peel off, to tear off, to march off, to fly off, and the like. 3.Denoting a leaving, abandonment, departure, abatement, interruption, or remission; as, the fever goes off; the pain goes off; the game is off; all bets are off. 4.Denoting a different direction; not on or towards: away; as, to look off. 5.Denoting opposition or negation. (Obs.) "The questions no way touch upon puritanism, either off or on." From off, off from; off. "A live coal... taken with the tongs from off the altar." Off and on. (a)Not constantly; not regularly; now and then; occasionally. (b)(Naut.) On different tacks, now toward, and now away from, the land. To be off. (a)To depart; to escape; as, he was off without a moment's warning. (b)To be abandoned, as an agreement or purpose; as, the bet was declared to be off. (Colloq.) To come off, To cut off, To fall off, To go off, etc. See under Come, Cut, Fall, Go, etc. To get off. (a)To utter; to discharge; as, to get off a joke. (b)To go away; to escape; as, to get off easily from a trial. (Colloq.) To take off To do a take-off on, To take off, to mimic, lampoon, or impersonate. To tell off (a)(Mil.) to divide and practice a regiment or company in the several formations, preparatory to marching to the general parade for field exercises. (b)to rebuke (a person) for an improper action; to scold; to reprimand. To be well off, to be in good condition. To be ill off, To be badly off, to be in poor condition.
Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48
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