tell someone off Definition

tell¹
verb told, telling

tr & intr
1. To inform or give information to someone in speech or writing.

Thesaurus: inform, notify.
tr & intr
2. To relate or give an account of something.

Thesaurus: relate, report, depict, describe, state.
Form: tell of something (often)
3. To command or instruct.
4. To express something in words.

Example: tell lies
tr & intr
5. To discover or distinguish.

Example: You can tell it by its smell
Thesaurus: discern, differentiate, discover, identify.
intr
6. To give away secrets about them.

Form: tell on someone (usually)
7. To make it known or give away.

Thesaurus: confess, disclose, divulge, reveal.
intr
8. Said of an ordeal, etc: to have a noticeable effect on them.

Form: tell on someone (often)
tr & intr
9. To know or recognize something definitely.

Example: I can never tell when he's lying
Thesaurus: discern, deduce, foresee, predict.
10. To assure.
intr
11. Said of evidence or circumstances, etc: to be unfavourable to a person's case or cause, etc.

Form: tell against someone (usually)

Idiom: all told

In all; with all taken into account.
Example: There were thirty all told

Idiom: take a telling

To do as one is told without having to be asked again.

Idiom: you're telling me!

colloq
An exclamation of agreement.

Etymology: Anglo-Saxon tellan.

Phrasal Verb: tell someone or something apart or tell something from something

To distinguish between them.
Example: can't tell the twins apart

Phrasal Verb: tell someone off

To scold or reprimand them.To count them off and detach them on some special duty.