Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TEL'ESM, n. [Ar.]

A kind of amulet or magical charm. Gregory.

TEL-ES-MAT'IC, or TEL-ES-MAT'IC-AL, a.

Pertaining to telesms; magical. Gregory.

TE-LES'TICH, n. [Gr. τελος, end, and στιχος, a verse.]

A poem in which the final letters of the lines make a name. Paus. Trans. B. Jonson.

TELL, v.i.

1. To give an account; to make report. That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of thy wondrous works. Ps. xxvi.
2. To take effect; as, every shot tells.
3. To produce some effect; as, every expression tells. 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, v.t. [pret. and pp. told. Sax. tellan; G. zahlen; D. tellen, to count, number or tell; Dan. tæler, to count; taler, to talk, speak, reason; Sw. tala, to speak, to talk; tal, talk, discourse, speech, number; Dan. tale, Ice. tala, id. The primary sense is to throw or drive, L. telum, Ar. دَلً dalla. Class Dl, No. 6. So L. appello and peal, L. pello, Gr. βαλλω.]

1. To utter; to express in words; to communicate to others. I will not eat till I have told my errand. Gen. xxiv.
2. To relate; to narrate; to rehearse particulars; as, to tell a story. Gen. xxxvii. And not a man appears to tell their fate. Pope.
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. xii.
4. To discover; to disclose; to betray. They will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. Numb. xiv.
5. To count; to number. Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars. Gen. xv.
6. To relate in confession; to confess or acknowledge. Tell me now what thou hast done. Josh. vii.
7. To publish. Tell it not in Gath. 2 Sam. i.
8. To unfold; to interpret; to explain. Ezek. xxiv.
9. To make excuses. Tush, never tell use. [Not elegant.] Shak.
10. To make known. Our feelings tell us how long they ought to have submitted. Junius.
11. To discover; to find; to discern. The colors are so blended that I can not 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 it 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'ER, a.

1. One that tells, relates or communicates the knowledge of something.
2. One who numbers.
3. 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-crown, 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. Cyc. [This word is supposed to be from tally, being in ancient records written tallier.]
4. An officer of a bank who receives and pays money on checks.

TELL'ING, ppr.

Uttering; relating; disclosing; counting

TEL'LI-NITE, n. [from tellina, a genus of testaceous animals.]

Petrified or fossil shells of the genus Tellina. Kirwan.

TELL'-TALE, a.

Telling tales; babbling. Shak.

TELL'-TALE, n. [tell and tale.]

1. 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. Shak.
2. A movable piece of ivory or lead on a chamber organ that gives notice when the wind is exhausted. Busby.
3. In seamanship, a small piece of wood, traversing in groove across the front of the poop deck, and which, communicating with a small barrel on the axis of the steering wheel, indicates the situation of the helm. Mar. Dict.

TEL'LU-RAL, a. [L. tellus.]

Pertaining to the earth.

TEL'LU-RATE, n.

A compound of telluric acid and base.

TEL'LU-RET-ED, a.

Tellureted hydrogen is hydrogen combined with tellurium in a gaseous form. Tellureted hydrogen is an old name for an acid, composed of hydrogen and tellurinm, in which the former is the base and the latter the acidifying principle.

TEL'LU-RIC, a. [L. tellus, the earth.]

Pertaining to the earth or proceeding from the earth; as, disease of telluric origin.

TEL'LU-RIC-AC'ID, n. [TEL'LU-RIC AC'ID.]

An acid composed of one equivalent of tellurium, and three of oxygen.

TEL'LU-RITE, n.

A compound of tellurous acid and I base.

TEL'LU-RI-UM, n.

A metal discovered by Müller in 1782, 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 a color between tin and silver, and sometimes inclines to a steel gray. The graphic tellurium is steel gray; but sometimes white, yellow or lead gray. These ores or found massive or crystalized. Cyc.

TEL'LU-ROUS-AC'ID, n. [TEL'LU-ROUS AC'ID.]

An acid composed of one tellurium and three oxygen.

TEM'A-CHIS, n. [Gr. τεμαχη, a piece.]

A genus of fossils of the class of gypsums, softer than other mid of a bright glittering hue. [Obs.] Cyc.

TEM-E-RA'RI-OUS, a. [Fr. temeraire; L. temerarius; from the root of time, tempest, – which see. The sense is rushing or advancing forward.]

1. Rash; headstrong; unreasonably adventurous; despising danger; as, temerarious folly.
2. Careless; heedless; done at random; as, the temerarious r dash of an unguided pen. [This word is not much used.] Ray

TEM-E-RA'RI-OUS-LY, adv.

Rashly; with excess of boldness.

TE-MER'I-TY, n. [L. temeritas; properly a rushing forward. See Time.]

1. Rashness; unreasonable contempt of danger; as, the temerity of a commander in war.
2. Extreme boldness. The figures are bold even to temerity. Cowley.

TEM'IN, n.

A money of account in Algiers, equivalent to 2 carubes, or 29 aspers, about 34 cents, or 17d. sterling. Cyc.

TEM'PER, n.

1. Due mixture of different qualities; or the state of any compound substance which results from the mixture of various ingredients; as, the temper of mortar.
2. Constitution of body. [In this sense we more generally use temperament.]
3. Disposition of mind; the constitution of the mind, particularly with regard to the passions and affections; as, a calm I temper; a hasty temper; a fretful temper. This is applicable to beasts as well as to man. Remember with what mild And gracious temper he both heard and judg'd. Milton.
4. Calmness of mind; moderation. Restore yourselves to your tempers, fathers. D. Jonson. To fall with dignity, with temper rise. Pope.
5. Heat of mind or passion; irritation. The boy showed a great deal of temper when I reproved him. So we say, a man of violent tempers when we speak of his irritability. [This use of the word is common, though a deviation from its original and genuine meaning.]
6. The state of a metal, particularly as to its hardness; as, the temper of iron or steel. Sharp.
7. Middle course; mean or medium. Swift.
8. In sugar works, white lime or other substance stirred into a clarifier filled with cane juice, to neutralize the superabundant acid. Edwards, W. Indies.

TEM'PER, v.t. [L. tempero, to mix or moderate; It. temperare; Sp. templar, to temper, to soften or moderate, to anneal, as glass, to tune an instrument, to trim sails to the wind; Fr. temperer, to temper, allay or abate; W. tymperu, to temper, to mollify; tym, space; tymp, enlargement, birth, season. The latter unites this word with time. The sense of this word is probably from making seasonable, or timely; hence to make suitable.]

1. To mix so that one part qualifies the outer; to bring to a moderate state; as, to temper justice with mercy. Milton.
2. To compound; to form by mixture; to qualify, as by an ingredient; or in general, to mix, unite or combine two or more things so as to reduce the excess of the (palities of ) either, and bring the whole to the desired consistence or state. Thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy. Exod. xxx.
3. To unite in due proportion; to render symmetrical; to ad.; just, as parts to each other. God hath tempered the body together. 1 Cor. xii. i
4. To accommodate; to modify. Thy sustenance serving to the appetite of the eater, tempered itself to every man's liking. Wisdom
5. To soften; to mollify; to assuage; to soothe; to calm; to reduce any violence or excess. Solon-labored to temper the warlike courages of the Athenians with sweet delights of earning. Spenser. Woman nature made thee, To temper man; we had been brutes without you. Olway.
6. To form to a proper degree of hardness; as, to temper iron or steel. The temper'd metals clash, and yield a silver sound. Dryden.
7. To govern; a Latinism. [Not in use.] Spenser.
8. In music, to modify or amend a false or imperfect concord f by transferring to it a part of the beauty of a perfect one, that is, by dividing the tones. Cyc.