Emily Dickinson Lexicon

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 me. [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.