tale

plural tales

1. A rehearsal of what has occurred; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story.

   the Canterbury Tales

   3 more examples

   And every shepherd tells his tale Under the hawthorn in the dale.

   1631, John Milton, L'Allegro

   But can you guess what there was in the box? Why, it was a calf's tail, and if the calf's tail had been longer this tale would have been longer too.

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 214

   Barla Von: What's this? One of the Earth-clan? Ah, a very famous one, yes? You are the one called Shepard. Barla Von: The tale of how you survived the great tragedy on Akuze is truly remarkable. I am amazed each time I hear it.

   2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citadel

2. A number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an enumeration.

   the ignorant, […] who measure by tale, and not by weight

   1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, Book I, Preface, §4

   2 more examples

   In packing, they keep a just tale of the number that every hogshead containeth ...

   1602, Richard Carew, Survey of Cornwall

   They proceeded with some rigour, these Custodiars; took written inventories, clapt-on seals, exacted everywhere strict tale and measure

   1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. 5, Twelfth Century

3. slangThe fraudulent opportunity presented by a confidence man to the mark or victim.
4. An account of an asserted fact or circumstance; a rumour; a report, especially an idle or malicious story; a piece of gossip or slander; a lie.

   Don't tell tales!

   1 more example

   “A very welcome, kind, useful present, that means to the parish. By the way, Hopkins, let this go no further. We don't want the tale running round that a rich person has arrived. Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing.[…]”

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

5. obsoleteNumber; tally; quota.

   Both number twice a day the milky dams And once she takes the tale of all the lambs.

   1697, John Dryden, The Works of Virgil, Pastoral III

   2 more examples

   And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.

   1611, King James Version, Exodus 5:8

   To appease the angry god, two hundred children of the noblest families were picked out for sacrifice, and the tale of victims was swelled by not less than three hundred more who volunteered to die for the fatherland.

   1890, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 1, page 237

6. obsoleteAccount; estimation; regard; heed.
7. obsoleteSpeech; language.
8. obsoleteA speech; a statement; talk; conversation; discourse.
9. obsoletelawA count; declaration.
10. archaicrareA number of things considered as an aggregate; sum.
11. archaicrareA report of any matter; a relation; a version.

    […] birds […] are aptest by their voice to tell tales what they find; and likewise by the motion of their flight to express the same.

    1605, Francis Bacon, Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human, Volume I, Chapter IX

present singular third person tales · participle present taling · participle past taled · past taled

1. dialectalobsoleteTo speak; discourse; tell tales.
2. ScotlanddialectalTo reckon; consider (someone) to have something.

plural tales

1. alternativeAlternative form of tael.