a Swiss patriot who lived in the early 14th century and who was renowned for his skill as an archer; according to legend an Austrian governor compelled him to shoot an apple from his son's head with his crossbow (which he did successfully without mishap)
tell
How to use tell in a sentence. Example sentences and definitions for tell.
Editorial note
He's an "ideas guy" as far as I can tell.
Quick take
a Swiss patriot who lived in the early 14th century and who was renowned for his skill as an archer; according to legend an Austrian governor compelled him to shoot an apple from his son's head with his crossbow (which he did successfully without mishap)
Meaning at a glance
The clearest senses and uses of tell gathered in one view.
express in words; "He said that he wanted to marry her"; "tell me what is bothering you"; "state your opinion"; "state your name"
let something be known; "Tell them that you will be late"
Definitions
Core meanings and parts of speech for tell.
noun
a Swiss patriot who lived in the early 14th century and who was renowned for his skill as an archer; according to legend an Austrian governor compelled him to shoot an apple from his son's head with his crossbow (which he did successfully without mishap)
See also: Tell
verb
express in words; "He said that he wanted to marry her"; "tell me what is bothering you"; "state your opinion"; "state your name"
verb
let something be known; "Tell them that you will be late"
verb
narrate or give a detailed account of; "Tell what happened"; "The father told a story to his child"
verb
give instructions to or direct somebody to do something with authority; "I said to him to go home"; "She ordered him to do the shopping"; "The mother told the child to get dressed"
verb
discern or comprehend; "He could tell that she was unhappy"
verb
inform positively and with certainty and confidence; "I tell you that man is a crook!"
See also: assure
verb
give evidence; "he was telling on all his former colleague"
See also: evidence
verb
mark as different; "We distinguish several kinds of maple"
See also: distinguish, separate, differentiate, secern, secernate, severalize, severalise
Example sentences
He's an "ideas guy" as far as I can tell.
Go back and look at that partial list of learnings from Amazon, and tell me which ones Stubby gives you out of the box.
In order to tell whether the service is actually responding, you have to make individual calls.
Then, you will put on your Responsible Adult pants, call your employee into the office, and tell them the situation.
At no time did this office ever seek or ever tell Mr. Swartzs attorneys that it intended to seek maximum penalties under the law.
Facebook is successful because they built an entire constellation of products by allowing other people to do the work.
Set up an autoresponder politely telling folks that you're a single person and the spike in requests is a bit overwhelming.
As an architect who has done services coordination on skyscrapers and international airports, I can tell you it's not easy.
But the vendors sometimes tell hospitals that they cannot update FDA- approved systems, leaving those systems open to potential attacks.
Microsoft Press was one of his favorite clients back in the day. Growing up, he'd tell me stories of disorganized secretaries at Microsoft sending him awful reference photos, so he'd look up the execs in the phonebook and call them at home.
There was lots of existing documentation and lore about SOAs, but at Amazon's vast scale it was about as useful as telling Indiana Jones to look both ways before crossing the street.
During that time, the female arresting officer would periodically come by to taunt me, and tell me that I shouldn't have questioned her, and then threw a huge tantrum when I requested not to be touched by her for fingerprinting.
That's unfortunate, but it's not our problem, and rather than stick him with the bill for $X,000 in back taxes we're just going to tell the tax authorities that he's been maliciously reclassified and that you're delinquent in your obligations.
Frequently asked questions
Short answers drawn from the clearest meanings and examples for this word.
How do you use tell in a sentence?
He's an "ideas guy" as far as I can tell.
What does tell mean?
a Swiss patriot who lived in the early 14th century and who was renowned for his skill as an archer; according to legend an Austrian governor compelled him to shoot an apple from his son's head with his crossbow (which he did successfully without mishap)
What part of speech is tell?
tell is commonly used as noun, verb.