Dictionary

betell en · VERB

Etymology

From Middle English betellen (“to tell about, calumniate”), from Old English betellan (“to speak about, answer, defend oneself against a charge or accusation”), equivalent to be- (“about, concerning”) + tell.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To speak or tell about; declare; narrate; describe.
   • The air pooled in stillness because the winds had died and would never breathe again, and the silence betold a world of solid stone, where the planetary core had gone cold, where no rivers ran and seas no longer stirred with tides, […] 2009, Dean R. Koontz, Odd Hours:
   • Occasionally we do see some short-line road whose track and equipment are kept in such good repair as to betell of exceptional prosperity; […] 1938, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (U.S.), Locomotive engineers journal:
   • Sid's face disappeared and one of his cursed Gods was glaring instead, through gouged-out sockets that betold of his having loved that which was denied him, a law that not even legends could do away with. 2001, Donna Morrissey, Kit's Law: A Novel:
2. (transitive) To speak for; answer for; justify.
3. (transitive) To lay claim to; win; rescue.
4. (rare, transitive) To talk about negatively; slander; calumniate; deride; deceive.

Forms