tell time

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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.

QUIZ

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Question 1 of 7

Fill in the blank: I can’t figure out _____ gave me this gift.

who

whom

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Words nearby tell time

Telloh, tell on, tell someone where to get off, telltale, tell tales, tell time, tellurate, tellurian, telluric, telluric acid, telluride

How to use tell time in a sentence

Since the 1950s, fluoride has adapted itself to the prevailing concerns of the time.
Anti-Fluoriders Are The OG Anti-Vaxxers|Michael Schulson|July 27, 2016|DAILY BEAST
But give the Kingdom credit for its sense of mercy: The lashes will be administered only 50 at a time.
In Defense of Blasphemy|Michael Tomasky|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
“I think for trans men who are dating every time they hook up they have another coming out,” Sandler said.
Grindr’s Trans Dating Problem|David Levesley|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
As far as I can tell, this magazine spent as much time making fun of French politicians as it did of Muslims or Islam.
Harry Shearer on The Dangerous Business of Satire|Lloyd Grove|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST

Thus, more time is spent organization and obtaining ones free of failings.
Design Your Own Dinosaur: The Era of Custom DNA|Justin Jones|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
And to tell the truth, she couldn't help wishing he could see, so he could make the game livelier.
The Tale of Grandfather Mole|Arthur Scott Bailey
It ended on a complaint that she was 'tired rather and spending my time at full length on a deck-chair in the garden.'
The Wave|Algernon Blackwood
Ages back—let musty geologists tell us how long ago—'twas a lake, larger than the Lake of Geneva.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 60, No. 372, October 1846|Various
Each day she resolved, "To-morrow I will tell Felipe;" and when to-morrow came, she put it off again.
Ramona|Helen Hunt Jackson
The vision—it had been an instantaneous flash after all and nothing more—had left his mind completely for the time.
The Wave|Algernon Blackwood