(tel) v. told, tell·ing v.t.
1. To relate in detail; narrate, as a story.
2. To make known by speech or writing; communicate.
3. To make known; reveal; disclose: to tell secrets.
4. To decide; ascertain: I cannot tell who is to blame.
5. To utter; express in words: to tell a lie.
6. To give a command to; bid; order: I told him to go home.
7. To let know; inform.
8. Colloq. To inform or assure emphatically: It's cold out, I tell you!
9. To count; enumerate: to tell one's beads.
—v.i.
10. To give an account or description: usually with of.
11. To disclose something; inform: with on.
12. To serve as indication or evidence: with of: Their rags told of their poverty.
13. To produce a marked effect: Every blow told. See synonyms under AFFIRM, ASSERT, INFORM¹, PUBLISH, RELATE, SPEAK.
—all told Everyone or everything being counted; in all.
—to tell off
1. To count and set apart.
2. Colloq. To reprimand severely.
—noun Dial.
1. Something told; story; say.
2. Account; story; explanation: according to his tell.
—to hear tell Colloq. To hear (something) spoken of: I've heard tell of his accomplishments. [OE tellan. Akin to TALE, TALK.]
—tell′a·ble adjective

(tel), William
A legendary Swiss hero in the struggle for independence from Austria. He refused to salute the governor's cap, which had been set up as a symbol of Austrian authority, and was forced to shoot an apple off his son's head with bow and arrow.