Word.ws English Dictionary

tells tales

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

Meaning of tell tales

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To lie, to be making false claims.
    • Don't listen to him; he's telling tales.
  2. (UK) To report someone for a wrongdoing.

Questions about tells tales

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

Words near tells tales in the dictionary

  1. tells of
  2. tells off
  3. tells on
  4. tells someone where to get off
  5. tells someone where to shove it
  6. tells tales
  7. tells tales out of school
  8. tells the time
  9. tells the truth
  10. tells the truth and shames the devil
  11. tells time

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tells tales (page history and authors); tell tales (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 tales.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tells_tales. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.