telltalen.adj.

1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry IV f. ij^v He..was very glad (as tell tales and scicophantes bee..) to declare to the kyng what he had heard.

a1639 W. Whately Prototypes (1640) iii. xxxix. 4 Most men will hate such as complaine of them, and call them tel-tales.

1660 No Droll but a Rational Account 8 Treacherous tell-tales, that frequent clubs and Coffee-houses, whose chief business is to jilt others into discourse.

1734 J. Swift Strephon & Cloe in Beautiful Young Nymph 22 A Tell tale out of School Is of all Wits the greatest Fool.

1782 F. Burney Cecilia III. vi. vi. 280 ‘Don't be angry in earnest, Sir,’ cried Lady Honoria, gayly, ‘for I did not mean to turn tell-tale.’

1854 ‘Onesimus’ Leon 44 They hate tell-tales at our school, and I never tell tales—not I.

1869 Godey's Lady's Bk. Mar. 228/2 Oh, it is only you, Ritta; I thought it might be some spying tell-tale, who would run to madam with the story of my harmless fun.

a1891 H. Melville Billy Budd (1962) xv. 85 It would savor overmuch of the dirty work of a telltale.

1943 E. Blyton Summer Term at St Clare's vii. 47 I'll pay her out all right! I'll make her squirm. The nasty little tell-tale.

1990 F. Fyfield Trial by Fire (1991) xi. 221 You told, William Featherstone, you told. Crybaby telltale. You told.

2004 M. Murphy Don't wake me at Doyles (2006) ii. 18 I always threatened to tell Mammy what they were up to. I was such a telltale.

1595 G. Markham Most Honorable Trag. Sir R. Grinuile sig. F2 Weepe then my pen, the tell-tale of our woe.

1598 Meane in Spending in T. Tyro Roring Megge sig. F4 He spends nothing on gorgeous aray, the tel-tale of vanitie.

1600 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 2 iv. i. 201 And therefore will he..keepe no tel-tale to his memorie, That may repeate, and history his losse, To new remembrance. View more context for this quotation

1606 Heavenly Medit. Publicans Prayer f. 20 The Infant-blush at my natiuitie, was it not the Tell-tale of my originall sinne.

1656 R. Fletcher Poems in Ex Otio Negotium 227 Her cheeks bestreak'd with white and red Like pretty tell-tales of the bed Presag'd the blustring night.

1753 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison II. 295 I was very earnest to know, since my eyes had been such tell-tales, if their brother had any suspicion of my regard for him.

1829 W. Scott Anne of Geierstein II. iii. 78 This gown may be a tell-tale..help me to pull off my upper garment.

1849 M. Arnold Memory Pict. 42 Paint those eyes, so blue, so kind, Eager tell-tales of her mind.

1891 Ann. Gynæcol. & Pædiatry Aug. 696/1 They are..associated with the characteristic lupoid cicatrization lines radiating from certain centres—the tell-tales of the earlier ravages of the disease.

1975 B. Garfield Death Sentence (1976) vii. 44 His hands began to sweat: the familiar telltale.

1982 R. Grudin Time & Art of Living (1988) xi.150 These problems are only tell-tales of a general discomfort we feel toward the passage of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks and months.

2009 R. Nugent Down at Docks iv. 161 His mom would sniff his clothes for telltales of salt-water life and check his shoes and cuffs for signs of muck.

1786 T. Busby Compl. Dict. Music Tell-Tale, a moveable piece of ivory, or lead, suspended in the front of a chamber organ on one side of the keys, by a string, one end of which being attached to the bellows within, rises as they sink, and apprises the performer, in what degree the wind is exhausted.

1855 A. S. Kennard Eastern Experiences xvii. 193 I remember once volunteering to work the bellows of a great organ for a friend who was amusing himself with playing the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’, and the perspiration breaking out on my forehead at the tremendous exertions I had to make to keep the tell-tale in its place.

1905 O. C. Faust Treat. Constr. Organ 22 There is a telltale or indicator, fastened to the bellows in such a manner as to aid the blow boy in keeping the desired supply of wind.

1996 N. Plumley in Fanfare for Organ-builder 144 The shapely tell-tale is a rarity for a Walker organ in that it is made of ivory.

1823 Jackson's Oxf. Jrnl. 25 Jan. 4/1 A tell-tale is affixed to this new mill, which registers the number of its revolutions.

1824 Examiner 552/1 He paid the toll, and went through the piece of machinery called a tell-tale.

1827 A. Siebe in London Jrnl. Arts & Sci. 13 274 For the purpose of indicating when the quantity of water is so far diminished within a steam boiler as to render it dangerous. This apparatus may be called a tell-tale.

1827 W. Matthews Hist. Sketch Gas-lighting vi. 47 A Tell-Tale..shews the quantity of gas generated in every hour, and therefore operates as a constant check upon the workmen.

1881 Chicago Times 4 June An ingenious machine, called the ‘tell-tale’, has been introduced recently on the Erie railroad. It registers the speed of trains, when and where they stop, and how long.

1884 C. G. W. Lock Workshop Receipts 3rd Ser. 68/2 Electrical apparatus is eminently adapted for alarms, tell-tales, and time signals.

1935 Flying Mag. June 349/3 It is important that the flaps..be in the ‘UP’ position for take-off. Their position is indicated by a tell tale on the instrument board.

1968 Operator Man.: Mixer, Bituminous Material (Dep. Army (U.S.) Techn. Man. 5-3895-287-15) c-2/2 When the telltale is in a vertical position, the hopper is empty, and when it is in a horizontal position, the hopper is full.

2011 C. Edmondson Fast Car Physics i. 2 Some analog tachometers have a needle, called a telltale, that stops at the highest rpm that is reached.

1827 C. Babbage Ess. Applic. Machinery to Manuf. 16 The instrument, aptly called a tell-tale, informs the owner whether the man has missed any, and what, hours during the night.

1863 All Year Round 19 Sept. 95/2 He had to be at the entrance to each catacomb..at stated hours,..and ‘tell-tales’ were provided, to test his punctuality.

2002 W. J. Ashworth in I. R. Morus Bodies/Machines iii. 52 A similar device..was introduced into textile factories to ascertain the vigilance of the patrolling watchman and was known as a ‘tell-tale’. By hitching an unseen clock to a mechanism placed at a certain part of the watchman's round, the owner could monitor his regularity.

1863 P. Gaskell Brit. Patent 2989 (1864) 1 Improvements in Tell-tales or Indicators for Cabs, and such like Public Vehicles.

1939 Pop. Sci. Monthly Dec. 137/1 (caption) Telltale mounted in truck cab.

1885 Railroad Gaz. 10 Apr. 225/1 In 1870 another law was passed requiring the corporations to maintain ‘bridge guards’ or ‘tell-tales’ on each side of all bridges less than 18 ft. above the track, to warn the brakemen of freight trains as they approach.

1922 Factory July 82/2 The brushing of the tell-tale across his face reminds him to slow up at once and proceed with caution.

1993 Code of Federal Regulations: 29: Labor (Office of Federal Register, U.S.) 698/1 The term telltale means a device used to serve as a warning for overhead objects.

1905 Sketch 15 Nov. 161/2 (caption) An admirable form of forced ignition, with tell-tale on the dashboard.

1910 Motor Car Jrnl. 19 Nov. 783/1 A tell-tale on the dash enabling the driver to feel or see that the pump is working properly.

1962 Autocar Spring 62/2 When any driving lamps are on, a small green warning light appears, and this is supplemented by a blue tell-tale for the main beams.

1966 Guardian 17 Oct. 6/3 The winker tell-tale is..self-cancelling.

2006 M. Thaddeus Classic Car Electrics ix. 42/2 Earlier models will supply the tell-tale from a line which runs from the D terminal to the ignition switch.

1922 Builder 18 Aug. 241 In anticipation of the test a tell-tale of substantial blocks of stone, set in cement, was constructed at the point of contrary flexure... The faint hair crack which fractured the solid masonry of the tell-tale some days after the needles were loosened indicated the correctness of the prediction.

1938 Times 16 Feb. 14/1 Of the many tell-tales planted by Mr. Harvey only a few are known to have broken.

1972 Besselsleigh & Dry Sandford (Berks.) Parish Mag. Oct. The church council has agreed to the architect's suggestion that a few glass tell-tales should be fixed in some of these cracks.

1989 J. H. Bungey et al. Testing Concrete Structures (ed. 2) vi. 123 Thin glass slips, such as microscope slides, are commonly used but calibrated plastic tell-tales are also available.

2009 P. Glover Building Surv. (ed. 7) iii. 42 (caption) A crude linear telltale has been fixed over the crack to measure movement.

1953 Sun (Baltimore) 30 Mar. (B ed.) 26/7 A broken ‘tell-tale’, one of the little devices policemen set in doorways and fire escapes to help them check on burglars.

1979 K. Follett Triple viii. 184 There were dozens of ways of planting telltales. A hair lightly stuck across the crack of the door..; a lump of sugar under a thick carpet would be silently crushed by a footstep.

2000 T. Clancy Bear & Dragon xxi. 298 If this Suvorov mutt was as trained as they thought, he'd leave telltales in his apartment that could make breaking in dicey.

1813 A. Wilson Amer. Ornithol. VII. 57 This species and the preceding are..stigmatized with the names of the greater and lesser Tell-tale, for their faithful vigilance in alarming the Ducks with their loud and shrill whistle.

1876 W. Black Madcap Violet xxii That abominable wretch the curlew, for he is a screaming tell-tale.

1896 A. Newton Dict. Birds 954 Telltale, the name long used in North America for Totanus melanoleucus and T. flavipes.

1937 S. C. Arthur Audubon xxix. 438 Audubon and his companions also found the ‘Tell-tale Tattler’, as they then knew the greater yellowlegs, most abundant.

2013 R. K. Sawyer Texas Market Hunting ii. 22 The name tattler or tell-tale was given by waterfowlers to lesser yellowlegs, willets, and upland sandpipers.