tell time

Idioms  

1. Keep track of the hours; also, know how to read a clock or watch. For example, This old clock still tells time quite accurately, or He taught his niece to tell time by using a cuckoo clock. This expression uses tell in the sense of “reckon” or “calculate,” a usage dating from about a.d. 1000.

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Example Sentences

Alarcon told The Times on Monday that throughout human history, people have by necessity been connected to the sky and stars because that’s how they were able to tell time, when to plant things and understand seasonal changes.

From Los Angeles Times

"She can hardly tell time yet."

From Literature

In a new study published in the journal Science, the team describes how this clock can tell time with a resolution from decades to centuries, an accuracy that cannot be achieved with traditional DNA mutation-based clocks.

From Science Daily

Yet what word did Mattel executive Robbie Brenner, who spearheaded the project, tell Time that she would not apply to the movie?

From Los Angeles Times

Combined, the two features helped the religious figures using the site to tell time more exactly.

From Washington Times