Word.ws English Dictionary

tell you what

tell you what phrase: introduces a compromise or arrangement where the interlocutor has some benefit or advantage.

Phrase

tell you what

  1. (colloquial) Introduces a compromise or arrangement where the interlocutor has some benefit or advantage.
    • Tell you what, you can have it for fifty quid if you'll promise to give it a good home.
  2. (colloquial) Synonym of I can tell you.
    • Tell you what, you won't find another one that cheap anytime soon.
    Synonyms:
    I can tell you

Synonyms of tell you what

Origin of tell you what

Ellipsis of I'll tell you what or I tell you what. The sense introducing an arrangement also corresponds to another, longer established collocation of I'll tell you what I'm gonna do or let me tell you what I'm gonna do.

Questions about tell you what

What does tell you what mean?
Tell you what means introduces a compromise or arrangement where the interlocutor has some benefit or advantage.
What part of speech is tell you what?
Tell you what is a phrase.

Words near tell you what in the dictionary

  1. tell time
  2. tell us another
  3. tell us another one
  4. tell volumes
  5. tell you the truth
  6. tell you what
  7. tell-a-story
  8. tell-all
  9. tell-alls
  10. tell-tale
  11. tell-tale compass

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tell you what (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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