What is "told"

Tell \Tell\ (t[e^]l), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Told (t[=o]ld); p. pr. & vb. n. Telling.] [AS. tellan, from talu tale, number, speech; akin to D. tellen to count, G. z["a]hlen, OHG. zellen to count, tell, say, Icel. telja, Dan. tale to speak, t[ae]lle to count. See Tale that which is told.]

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.''
   --Spenser.

   He telleth the number of the stars.
   --Ps. cxlvii. 4.

   Tell the joints of the body.
   --Jer. Taylor.

2. To utter or recite in detail; to give an account of; to narrate.

   Of which I shall tell all the array.
   --Chaucer.

   And not a man appears to tell their fate.
   --Pope.

3. To make known; to publish; to disclose; to divulge.

   Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?
   --Gen. xii. 18.

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?
   --Shak.

5. To order; to request; to command.

   He told her not to be frightened.
   --Dickens.

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.
   --Chaucer.

   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.
   --Sir W. Scott.

   Syn: To communicate; impart; reveal; disclose; inform; acquaint; report; repeat; rehearse; recite.

Told \Told\ (t[=o]ld), imp. & p. p. of Tell.

past tense and past participle of tell (v.), from Old English tealde, past tense of tellan.

vb. (en-past of: tell)

See tell

1. v. express in words; "He said that he wanted to marry her"; "tell me what is bothering you"; "state your opinion"; "state your name" [syn: state, say]

2. let something be known; "Tell them that you will be late"

3. narrate or give a detailed account of; "Tell what happened"; "The father told a story to his child" [syn: narrate, recount, recite]

4. 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" [syn: order, enjoin, say]

5. discern or comprehend; "He could tell that she was unhappy"

6. inform positively and with certainty and confidence; "I tell you that man is a crook!" [syn: assure]

7. give evidence; "he was telling on all his former colleague" [syn: evidence]

8. mark as different; "We distinguish several kinds of maple" [syn: distinguish, separate, differentiate, secern, secernate, severalize, severalise, tell apart]

9. [also: told]

Told is a village in Hajdú-Bihar county, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary.