telltale
/ˈtɛlteɪl/
telltale noun: one who divulges private information with intent to hurt others.
Noun
telltale (plural telltales)
- One who divulges private information with intent to hurt others.
- Your husband is at hand; I heare his Trumpet, / We are not tell-tales, Madam; feare you not.c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- There were some ill-natured people —tell-tales—it seemed, in Tamai; and hence there was a deal of mystery about getting up the dance.1846, Herman Melville, Typee
- Synonyms:
- blabbermouth, gossip, rumormonger, squealer, talebearer, tattletale, carrytale, blab, blabtale, blabtongue
- An indicator, such as a warning light, that serves to warn of a hazard or problem.
- A railroad company, which has properly erected a “telltale,” or signal board, to give warning of the approach of a train to a bridge and which lights the place at night by an electric light, is not responsible for injury caused at night by the “telltale” to a brakeman who had been passing under it...1893, “Case No. 2: Phillips vs. The Railroad Co.”, in The Counsellor: The New York Law School Law Journal, page 63
- A float telltale to be provided which shall connect with indicator on first floor by a small chain run through 1-2 inch pipe and over pulleys well guarded against the weather.1901, National Fire Protection Association, Proceedings - Volume 5, page 127
- Something that serves to reveal something else.
- The telltale was the lipstick on his shirt collar.
- It supplies many useful links and tell-tales.1898, George Saintsbury, A Short History of English Literature
- A movable piece of ivory, lead, or other material, connected to the bellows of an organ, whose position indicates when the wind is exhausted.
- A length of yarn or ribbon attached to a sail or shroud etc to indicate the direction of the flow of the air relative to the boat.
- The sailmakers mistake can be an excellent way to lose a race as the telltale signals were disturbed and confusing.1997, Patrick M. Royce, Royce's Sailing Illustrated - Volume 2
- If you turn toward the wind, the sail becomes undertrimmed, and the inside, or windward, telltale starts to rise and flutter as the flow is disturbed.2011, J. J. Isler, Peter Isler, Sailing For Dummies, page 245
- A mechanical attachment to the steering wheel, which, in the absence of a tiller, shows the position of the helm.
- A compass in the cabin of a vessel, usually placed where the captain can see it at all hours, and thus inform himself of the vessel's course.
- A machine or contrivance for indicating or recording something, particularly for keeping a check upon employees (factory hands, watchmen, drivers, etc.) by revealing to their employers what they have done or omitted.
- A bird, the tattler.
- A story or fable that has a moral or message.
- "Metamorphoses . . ." is the title of a book of telltales (or serialised fables) written by Lucius Apulei¡us, a neo-platonist priest in the second century A.D.2012, Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, The Origins of Life, page 130
- This telltale is not like the story that you put in the hands of your children, or those narrated by mothers in their children's bedrooms in Western Europe before sleep. This is a telltale that is not welcome but is forbidden to be distributed.2018, Dawood Kaloti, The Telltale Leaflet: From Palestine to Stockholm
Adjective
telltale (comparative more telltale, superlative most telltale)
- Revealing something, especially something not intended to be known.
- I noticed the snow was dirty, a telltale sign of recent human presence.
- A telltale blush crept into her cheeks as he approached.
telltale meaning in Urdu, Malayalam, Kannada and Persian
telltale in Urdu
- چغل خور, غماز
telltale in Malayalam
- revelatory, revealing, suggestive
- യഥാർത്ഥസ്വഭാവം വെളിപ്പെടുത്തുന്ന, രഹസ്യം വെളിപ്പെടുത്തുന്ന, സത്യസ്ഥിതി പ്രത്യക്ഷമാക്കിക്കൊടുക്കുന്ന, പ്രകടമായി കാണിക്കുന്ന, സൂചനകമായ, അർത്ഥവത്തായ
- informer, whistle-blower, tattletale
- അറിവു കൊടുക്കുന്നവൻ, അറിവു കൊടുക്കുന്ന ചാരൻ, വാർത്തായനൻ, ഒറ്റുകാരൻ, പോലീസിനു വിവരം കൊടുക്കുന്നയാൾ, അഴിമതികൾ പുറത്തു കൊണ്ടുവരുന്നയാൾ
telltale in Kannada
- ತಿಳಿಹುಗ, ಸುಳಿವು
telltale in Persian
- one who divulges private information
- سخنچین soxan-čin, سپزگ sepazg, چغل čoġol
Examples of telltale in a sentence
- Louis tells me that the gossip of the sailors finds its way aft, and that two of the telltales have been badly beaten by their mates.1904, Jack London, The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC:
- The Chinese girls who saw me yesterday are telltales.2008, Fleur Yano, Collected Writings of Flora Belle Jan, page 112:
- Accordingly, automobiles aboard piggyback flats are usually coupled into the train 15 or more cars behind the locomotive; and telltales have been raised.1960 November, David Morgan, “"Piggyback"—U.S. success story”, in Trains Illustrated, page 684:
- Except for informational readout displays, each discrete and distinct telltale shall be of the color shown in column 2 of Table 2.1980, The Code of Federal Regulations of the United States of America, page 150:
Synonyms of telltale
18 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of telltale
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | telltales |
| alternative form | tell-tale |
| alternative form | tell tale |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more telltale |
| superlative | most telltale |
Origin of telltale
From tell + tale, perhaps dissimilated from earlier taleteller, from Middle English tale tellere (literally “tale teller”).
Words formed from telltale
Phrases with telltale
Questions about telltale
- What does telltale mean?
- Telltale means one who divulges private information with intent to hurt others.
- What is telltale in Urdu?
- Telltale in Urdu is چغل خور, غماز. See Telltale meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use telltale in a sentence?
- Louis tells me that the gossip of the sailors finds its way aft, and that two of the telltales have been badly beaten by their mates.
- What part of speech is telltale?
- Telltale can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce telltale?
- Telltale is pronounced /ˈtɛlteɪl/.
- What is the plural of telltale?
- The plural of telltale is telltales.
Words near telltale in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: telltale (page history and authors); telltale (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); telltale (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); telltale (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-telltale.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-telltale.wav.
Cite this entry: “telltale.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/telltale. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.