English · Idiom Attested

tell tales

In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Spread rumours.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

lan truyền tin đồn

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

‘ Someone's been telling tales …

Tom then howled and snatched it back and the parents intervened to tell him off for making a noise and for snatching.

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Euphemism (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).

Common questions

What does “tell tales” mean?

Spread rumours.

Is “tell tales” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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