the stem of TELL v. in combination with a sb. (in objective or attributive relation), used as sb. or adj.: Tell-box, tell-card, contrivances used by card-sharpers, to enable them to turn up a particular card; † tell-cause, Rhet.: see quot.; † tell-clock, one who ‘tells the clock’: see TELL v. 21 c (b); an idler who merely marks time; tell-fare = TELL-TALE 2 f; † tell-love: see quot.; tell-pie, tell-piet, a tale-bearer: cf. tale-piet, TALE sb. 10. See also TELL-TALE, TELL-TRUTH.
1865. Athenæum, No. 1941. 13/1. This simple *tell-a-story style.
1894. Maskelyne, Sharps & Flats, viii. 194. The contrivances … are known as *‘tell-boxes.’ Ibid. Any card which lies immediately upon the smooth face of a *‘tell-card’ will slip easily.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. xix. (Arb.), 236. This assignation of cause the Greekes called Etiologia, which if we might without scorne of a new inuented terme call *Tell cause it were right according to the Greeke originall.
1609. Ellesmere, Sp. on Post-nati, 17. They are called thither by the Kings Writ, not to sit as *Tell-clockes, or idle hearers.
1618. S. Ward, Jethro’s Justice (1627), 65. Is there no meane betweene busiebodies and tell-clocks, between factotum and fay’t neant?
1865. Gaskell (title), Patent Cab Indicator, or *Tell-Fare.
1640. Erotomania, 176. Poppy … Theocritus cals this hearb τηλίφιλον … as if we should say, *Tel-loue.
1828. Craven Gloss., *Tell-pye, a tell-tale.
1897. Sarah Grand, Beth Bk., xii. If you tell secrets, you know, you’re a tell-pie. Ibid., xv. Don’t you be put upon by tell-pie-tits.
1855. Robinson, Whitby Gloss, *Tell-pyet or Telly-pie, a tale-bearer, a tell-tale.
