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View synonyms for tell off

tell off

verb

  1. informal.
    to reprimand; scold

    they told me off for stealing apples

  2. to count and dismiss

    he told off four more soldiers

“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Derived Forms

  • telling off, noun
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Idioms and Phrases

Rebuke severely, reprimand, as in It's time someone told her off about her behavior . There is also a synonymous expression, tell someone where to get off , as in When he called back a third time, I told him where to get off . [ Colloquial ; early 1900s] Also see get off , def. 7.
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Example Sentences

One can not tell off-hand whether 10 hours, sidereal time, falls in the day or in the night.

On looking at a map, one often feels a desire to tell off-hand the distance between two places.

I can't tell off-hand what it is, whether you've come on or gone back.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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