tell on

phrasal verb

told on; telling on; tells on

informal : to tell someone in authority about the bad behavior or actions of (someone else)

Please don't tell on me.

: to have a noticeable effect on (someone or something)

The stress began to tell on her face/health.

Examples of tell on in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Shyamala and Donald were, after all, left-wing immigrants who attended and taught at some of the most prestigious schools in the country, a litany of identities that, together, read like a hack joke that Greg Gutfeld would tell on his late-night Fox News comedy show. —

Jay Caspian Kang, The New Yorker, 26 July 2024 Dobbs was named in a lawsuit against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems over lies told on the network about the 2020 presidential election. —

CBS News, 18 July 2024 Joe Scarborough, speaking alongside co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist, said that the show’s staff had been told on Sunday evening that all of MSNBC’s lineup would be pre-empted for a single NBC News feed in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. —

Oliver Darcy, CNN, 16 July 2024 Biden and Netanyahu also discussed aspects of the second phase of the deal, which would be expected to bring about a permanent cease-fire and the release of all remaining living hostages and Israeli soldiers held in Gaza, journalists were told on the briefing call. —

Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, 4 July 2024 See all Example Sentences for tell on

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tell on.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.