(now only nonstandard, and dialectal in Northern England and Scotland) simple past tense and past participle of tell

plural of telling

(usually childish) To inform on, to rat out; to tell a person in authority that someone else has done something wrong. / To cause visible strain to.

The act of narration. / The disclosure of information. / (archaic) Counting, numbering. / (chiefly in the negative) Ability to determine.

present participle of tell

Having force, or having a marked effect; weighty, effective. / Revealing information; bearing significance. / Serving to convince.

A reflexive, often habitual behavior, especially one occurring in a context that often features attempts at deception by persons under psychological stress (such as a poker game or police interrogation), that reveals information that the person exhibiting the behavior is attempting to withhold.

(transitive, archaic outside of idioms) To count, reckon, or enumerate. / (transitive, ditransitive) To narrate. / (transitive, ditransitive) To convey by speech; to say.

(archaeology) A hill or mound, originally and especially in the Middle East, over or consisting of the ruins of ancient settlements.

Third-person singular simple present indicative form of tell