tell on

English

Verb

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

1. (usually childish) To inform on, to rat out; to tell a person in authority that someone else has done something wrong.

   Synonym: (archaic) bewray

   My sister told on me when I didn't go to school.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 27:11:

     Lest they should tell on us, saying, So did David.

2. To cause visible strain to.

   Years of drinking started to tell on his body.

Translations

to tell someone that someone else has done something wrong

• Czech: žalovat (cs)
• Danish: sladre
• Dutch: klikken (nl)
• Finnish: kannella (fi)
• French: balancer (fr)
• German: verpetzen (de)
• Hungarian: beárul (hu), árulkodik (hu)
• Polish: skarżyć (pl) impf, poskarżyć pf
• Portuguese: dedurar (pt)
• Romanian: pârî (ro)
• Russian: я́бедничать (ru) impf (jábedničatʹ), ная́бедничать (ru) pf (najábedničatʹ), стуча́ть (ru) impf (stučátʹ), настуча́ть (ru) pf (nastučátʹ)
• Swedish: skvallra (sv), tjalla (sv)
• Tagalog: magsumbong

See also

• Thesaurus:rat out