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• kiss-and-tell
  kiss-and-tell

  adjective

  describing a book, article, interview, etc., in which someone publicly gives details of private interactions, especially sexual relationships.
• kiss and tell
  kiss and tell

  Betray a confidence, as in A real lady doesn't kiss and tell. This idiom originally alluded to betraying an amorous or sexual intimacy. First recorded in 1695, it is still so used, as well as more loosely, as in Don't ask how I voted; I don't kiss and tell.

kiss-and-tell

American  

[kis-uhn-tel] / ˈkɪs ənˈtɛl /

adjective

1. describing a book, article, interview, etc., in which someone publicly gives details of private interactions, especially sexual relationships.

   Many years later, she spilled all the embarrassing details of her ordeal in a bestselling kiss-and-tell memoir.

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kiss-and-tell British  

1. denoting the practice of publicizing one's former sexual relationship with a celebrity, esp in the tabloid press

   a kiss-and-tell interview

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kiss and tell Idioms  

1. Betray a confidence, as in A real lady doesn't kiss and tell. This idiom originally alluded to betraying an amorous or sexual intimacy. First recorded in 1695, it is still so used, as well as more loosely, as in Don't ask how I voted; I don't kiss and tell.

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Usage

What does kiss and tell mean? Kiss and tell means to reveal details about one’s romantic or sexual encounters, especially about the person one has had these encounters with. The phrase can also be used as a noun referring to the revelation of such details, as in The media was obsessed with the billionaire’s scandalous kiss and tell. It can also be used as an adjective, in which case it’s typically hyphenated as kiss-and-tell, as in The gossip magazines are primarily interested in kiss-and-tell stories from celebrities. All forms of the phrase can also be used more generally in the context of a person revealing private information, especially information they had been entrusted with, as in Tom asked me who I voted for, but I don’t kiss and tell. Example: In middle school, you would always know when kids had played spin-the-bottle at a party, because they would always kiss and tell.

Etymology

Origin of kiss-and-tell

First recorded in 1920–25, for an earlier sense

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

kiss-and-tell kiss and tell

That last relationship eventually produced an illegitimate child and the first ever kiss-and-tell book about a president, which Britton published in 1927.

From Salon ● Sep. 17, 2022

“It has that defining aspect of a literary work: the stamp of a singular sensibility. In the fallen world of kiss-and-tell celebrity memoirs, this may be the most beautiful, literary and devastating one ever written.”

From New York Times ● Sep. 13, 2018

He added that “this is like a member of the CIA writing a kiss-and-tell book. This just never happens.”

From Washington Post ● Aug. 27, 2018

But the Enquirer did not publish her kiss-and-tell, and she says she was tricked.

From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2018

It was business as usual with a mixture of celebrity tittle-tattle, royal speculation and kiss-and-tell intrusiveness plus an abundance of so-what stories.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 18, 2011

According to Marie Claire, Shay was married and divorced four times, but Shay, not one to kiss and tell, never revealed the identities of her four elusive husbands.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2023

I turned down a large payday multiple times because one, I didn’t want to kiss and tell and be labeled all the things that I’m being labeled now.

From Slate ● Mar. 25, 2018

But then Sheeran admitted it by not really admitting it, saying that he wouldn’t explicitly kiss and tell — he’s a nice guy, after all — because everyone seemed to know the truth already.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 10, 2015

Best is Mr. West, who delivers some primo Kanye spite on “Birthday Song”: “Last birthday she got you a new sweater/Put it on, give her a kiss and tell her, ‘Do better.’ ”

From New York Times ● Aug. 15, 2012

I know I said I don’t kiss and tell but I had to tell Chris because he was Chris—my dude.

From "The Boy in the Black Suit" by Jason Reynolds