tally
/ˈtali
/noun (plural tallies)
1A current score or amount: that takes his tally to 10 goals in 10 games...
- They doubled their tally late in the game with goals by Hill and Ben Connolly.
- The current tally stands at between 1,138 and 1,374.
- The final tally on our bill was 67.30 leva - not too bad for a meal for four people.
Synonyms
total, score, count, sum, result
1.1A record of a score or amount: I kept a tally of David’s debt on a note above my desk...
- Extra staff are always on duty to cope with the numbers, and sometimes amuse themselves by keeping a running tally of blue-topped patients versus green and white.
- Since the mid-1990s, the tally of former footballers on honour rolls of Victorian league clubs has risen from 60 to 132.
- The boy kept a tally of the different colours of sweets as he chomped.
Synonyms
running total, count, record, reckoning, enumeration, register, account, roll, itemization, listing;
census, poll
1.2A particular number taken as a group or unit to facilitate counting.So he counted, and tallied, and counted his tallies, and when he was done he tossed the letters on the bed, flung himself full-length, and sighed....
- Continue that count, albeit an artificially pre-programmed tally, to the year 2020, and you're face to face with the future.
- The day's tally included more than 450,000 information requests.
1.3A mark registering a tally.I got up from the couch and, holding my arm to steady it, went over to the wall and made a faint mark for the sixth tally with the buckle from my sandal before going back and lying down....
- ‘That's one less thing,’ I said making an invisible tally mark on the window.
- A single tally mark was made in the appropriate space.
1.4An account kept by means of a tally.The server keeps a cache of all active account and session tallies and credit balances....
- Once you have registered for the Promotion, a tally account will be established for you; and you may then begin to search for the 20 hidden bottles.
- We accept the figures given in the supervisor's returns, over his signature, as being the actual results as to the volumes of materials delivered and measured in the vehicles, for the tally account in the memorandum book.
2 (also tally stick) historical A piece of wood scored across with notches for the items of an account and then split into halves, each party keeping one.When the deal was finalised, half of the tally stick went to the purchaser, and you kept the other half as a permanent record....
- No two sticks could be found so exactly similar, as to admit of being identically matched with each other, when split in the coarse manner of cutting tallies; and certainly no alteration of the particulars expressed by the notches and inscription could remain undiscovered when the two parts were again brought together.
- As resident surgeon to the Bank of England and the son of the accountant general, Smee was able to state with authority concerning some tallies preserved as relics that "curiously enough, I have ascertained that no gentleman in the Bank of England recollects the mode of reading them."
3 archaic A counterpart or duplicate of something: the key is so cut as to form a tally with the interior machinery
Synonyms
counterpart, match, mate, duplicate
4A label giving information about a plant or tree.The tally itself is what is known as the "package label" of the nurserymen, being six inches long, one and one-fourth inches wide, and costing (painted) less than one and one-half dollars a thousand....
- Figure 185 shows a zinc tally, which is secured to the tree by means of a sharp and pointed wire driven into 185' Zinc tree label' the wood.
verb (tallies, tallying, tallied)
1 [no object] Agree or correspond: their signatures should tally with their names on the register their books never tallied...
- There are undoubtedly chefs who believe reviewers go out with the express intention of ripping into a restaurant, but that doesn't tally with my experience.
- They say his actions, which destabilise, don't tally with the talk.
- While most pollsters say they would contact clients whose analyses didn't tally with the numbers, few ever do.
Synonyms
correspond, agree, accord, concur, coincide, match, fit, be in agreement, be consistent, conform, equate, harmonize, suit, be in tune, dovetail, correlate, parallel
informal square
North American informal jibe
2 [with object] Calculate the total number of: the votes were being tallied with abacuses...
- There were concerns that some votes weren't tallied, that people didn't know how to use the machines.
- So, let's get straight to the answers, so you can tally your score.
- Points were given for successful answers and were tallied up at the end of the day.
Synonyms
count, calculate, add up, total, enumerate, compute;
figure out, work out, reckon, measure, quantify, rate;
British tot up
Derivatives
tallier
- Most importantly, it does not protect voters’ privacy if the tallier and validator collude.
- For example, the talliers can compute a so-called hash of the tally, and each would then sign his hash.
- In our system, the voter receives a receipt confirming her vote, and does not need to trust any pollster to correctly encrypt her vote, or convey it to the talliers.
Origin
Late Middle English (denoting a notched tally stick): from Anglo-Norman French tallie, from Latin talea 'twig, cutting'. Compare with tail2.