▪ I. telling, vbl. n.
(ˈtɛlɪŋ)
[f. tell v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb tell.
1. a. The action of relating, making known, or saying; relation; communication, conversation (now dial.).
| 13.. Cursor M. 29163 (Cott. Galba) If þe prest..Be vnwise in his gifing, Or els þe synful in his telling. 1382 Wyclif 2 Macc. ii. 25 The tellyngis of stories. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 296 So wolde I my wordes plie, That mihten Wraththe and Cheste avale With tellinge of my softe tale. 1546 J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 67 A good tale yll tolde, in the tellyng is marde. 1700 Dryden Pref. Fables Wks. (Globe) 496 The form which he has given to the telling makes the tale his own. 1789 Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France I. 117 The theatres here are beautiful beyond all telling. |
b. An account, description. Now dial. or arch.
| 1382 Wyclif 1 John i. 5 This is the tellyng, that we herden of him, and tellen to ȝou. 1904 Blackw. Mag. Dec. 811/2 The father was a terrible man by all tellings. |
c. Phrase that's telling(s, that would be to divulge something secret (colloq.); similarly that would be telling; to lose nothing in the telling, (of a story) to become embellished in the course of frequent narration.
| 1837 Marryat Dog-Fiend xiv, ‘Where is this cargo to be seen, and when?’.. ‘That's tellings’, replied the man. 1878 E. Jenkins Haverholme 178 ‘How do you get your information?’ ‘That's tellings’, said the Monsignor. 1897 ‘S. Grand’ Beth Bk. xiii. 112 ‘May I ask..by whom you were informed?.. ‘Ah, that would be telling,’ said Beth. 1921 S. Kaye-Smith Joanna Godden iii. 136 ‘What sort of surprise?’ ‘That's telling.’ 1930 A. Christie Murder at Vicarage x. 78 ‘When was she talking of earning her own living?’.. ‘That would be telling, wouldn't it?’ 1973 G. Mitchell Murder of Busy Lizzie xii. 144 ‘But what could you inform about?’ ‘That's telling, isn't it?’ 1980 A. Price Hour of Donkey i. 23 ‘Are the Germans in Peronne, Dickie?’.. ‘That would be telling!’ |
| [1721 J. Kelly Scottish Proverbs 55 A Tale never loses in the telling. The Fame or Report of a matter of Fact..commonly receives an Addition as it goes from Hand to Hand.] 1906 Athenæum 13 Oct. 434 The narrative loses nothing in the telling. 1914 E. R. Burroughs Tarzan of Apes vi. 68 The story of the thunder-stick having lost nothing in the telling during these ten years. 1954 L. P. Hartley White Wand 15 No doubt Antonio was telling the story to his fellow-gondoliers at the traghetto, and it would lose nothing in the telling. |
2. a. The action of counting or numbering.
| 1387–8 T. Usk Test. Love ii. i. (Skeat) l. 114, I can not passen the tellinge of thre as yet. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 488/1 Tellynge, or nowmerynge, numeracio. 1589 [? Lyly] Pappe w. Hatchet E j b, I thinke them [sheep] woorth neither the tarring, nor the telling. 1594 Plat Jewell-ho. iii. 89 There must bee no time lost in the telling [of the money]. 1689 Answ. Lords & Commoner's Sp. 12 Notwithstanding the often telling of Noses. 1847 Infantry Man. (1854) 60 The telling off by threes. 1901 Scotsman 13 Mar. 9/4 This mixed telling did not mean mixed voting, for the division closely followed party lines. |
† b. transf. Value, amount, force. Obs. rare—1.
| 1636 Rutherford Lett. (1862) I. 188 There is much telling in Christ's Kindness! |
c. telling-off, a scolding or reprimand. Cf. tell v. 23 d. colloq.
| 1911 Kipling Diversity of Creatures (1917) 121 The boys..had had a wildish night..that ended with a telling-off from an artist. 1920 A. J. L. Scott Hist. Sixty Squadron R.A.F. 57 He got..a well-deserved and proper ‘telling-off’ from the Brigadier and Wing Commander. 1959 Times 22 July 7/4 Then there was and to some extent still is ‘a telling off’, sometimes met with in the degenerate form of ‘ticking off’. 1974 W. Foley Child in Forest ii. 231 Still smarting from my ‘telling-off’..and in militant mood. |
3. Comb., as † telling-board, telling-house: see quots.
| 1552 Huloet, *Tellinge bourde or table for exchaunge to tell money. |
| 1597 Catal. Anc. Deeds (1906) V. 485 In the *Telling howse usuallie appointed for receiptes and paimentes. 1869 Blackmore Lorna D. ii. note, The ‘telling-houses’ on the moor are rude cots where the shepherds meet, to tell their sheep at the end of the pasturing season. |
▪ II. ˈtelling, ppl. a.
[f. tell v. + -ing2.]
That tells; effective, forcible, striking.
| 1851 H. Melville Moby Dick I. xxv. 180 A staid, steadfast man, whose life for the most part was a telling pantomine of action. 1852 J. A. Roebuck Hist. Whig Ministry II. i. 129 This observation..was..what is called in debating language, a telling reply. 1859 De Quincey Wks. XI. Pref. 18 Into this great chef-d'œuvre of Milton, it was no doubt Johnson's secret determination to send a telling shot at parting. 1870 Stanhope Hist. Reign Anne (1872) I. i. 28 It was drawn up with telling force. 1903 Times, Lit. Supp. 8 May 143/1 He is master of a singularly lucid, nervous, and telling style. |
Hence ˈtellingly adv., effectively.
| 1860 Thackeray Round. Papers, Notes Week's Holiday, How tellingly the cool lights and warm shadows are made to contrast. 1875 Whitney Life Lang. xiv. 299 A curious fact, and one tellingly illustrative. |