Word.ws English Dictionary

tells against

tells against is the third-person singular simple present indicative of tell against.

Meaning of tell against

Verb

tell against (third-person singular simple present tells against, present participle telling against, simple past and past participle told against)

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To function as a liability (for someone); to put into a condition of disadvantage.
    • [S]ome people . . . have been so short-sighted and reckless as to clamor for an easy dissolution of the marriage-contract. . . . Is it possible that they do not see that this is a liberty which, once granted, would always tell against the weaker sex?1871, Harriet Beecher Stowe, chapter 27, in Pink and White Tyranny
  2. (idiomatic, transitive) To serve as evidence which casts doubt upon.
    • She knew he was disposed to catch at anything that seemed to tell against Godwin's claims.1892, George Gissing, chapter 2, in Born In Exile

Questions about tells against

What is tells against the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Tells against is the third-person singular simple present indicative of tell against.

Words near tells against in the dictionary

  1. Tello
  2. tellopeptide
  3. Tellos
  4. tells
  5. tells a story
  6. tells against
  7. tells all
  8. tells apart
  9. tells fortunes
  10. tells it like it is
  11. tells it to the hand

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tells against (page history and authors); tell against (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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Cite this entry: “tells against.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tells_against. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.