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• William Tell
  William Tell

  noun

  a legendary Swiss patriot forced by the Austrian governor to shoot an apple off his son's head with bow and arrow.
• Tell, William
  Tell, William

  A legendary hero of Switzerland, famous for his skill as an archer. A tyrannical official forced him to shoot an apple off his son's head.

William Tell

American  

noun

1. a legendary Swiss patriot forced by the Austrian governor to shoot an apple off his son's head with bow and arrow.

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Tell, William Cultural  

1. A legendary hero of Switzerland, famous for his skill as an archer. A tyrannical official forced him to shoot an apple off his son's head.

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Example Sentences

A 54-unit structure located at 2711 Wilshire Blvd. in Santa Monica, the Red Apple Motel was the sister property to the nearby William Tell Motel and Apartments.

From Los Angeles Times • May 15, 2025

Finally, the film gets surrealistic and even incorporates the William Tell scene from Burroughs' own life.

From Salon • Dec. 1, 2024

She had written: “There’s a seething stillness to ‘The Card Counter,’ and to star Oscar Isaac’s character, William Tell.

From Washington Post • Nov. 26, 2021

There is Rat Island, nothing more than a pile of rocks with a strange statue of the Swiss folk hero William Tell.

From Scientific American • Oct. 12, 2021

Old William Tell himself couldn’t have shot any straighter than I did.

From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls