noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
cautionary tale (= the story of an event that is used to warn people )
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a cautionary tale about how not to buy a computer
fairy tale
tell a story/tale
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He then told the story of how he was injured while riding his motorcycle.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
cautionary
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Thank you for your cautionary tale Richard.
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That is why she offers a cautionary tale about the parent traps facing all women.
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I suspect it was a cautionary tale .
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Tootle seems to be essentially a cautionary tale , warning the child to stay on the narrow road of virtue.
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Other revelations serve as cautionary tales about the importance of subordinating military officials to civilian authority.
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As a cautionary tale this book works very well.
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It is a cautionary tale told with sad humour on the border between innocence and togetherness.
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But Louima's case was the cautionary tale .
classic
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Snow White is a classic tale , one that conjures up wonderful images of mythical creatures.
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He was the changeling of the classic tale , thrust on good people, who was to repay good with evil.
folk
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But myths, folk tales , legends and, yes, religious stories are different.
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An ancient folk tale , it became the source of a number of legends and literary adaptations.
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Twilight Tales is a collection of spooky legends and folk tales passed through generations in the Southwest.
old
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I think it's an old wives' tale that make-up ruins the skin.
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An old tale tells of a holy priest who visited his nephew, a scurrilous tavern-keeper.
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The old wives' tales that have answered the pleas of fathers for centuries are mostly ineffective.
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But, as in so many old tales , the warriors get a fresh chance to strut their stuff.
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Whatever doctors, old wives' tales , and the Roman Catholic Church may say, human ovulation is invisible and unpredictable.
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Old men retold old tales once again.
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I think every guy who can scribble slightly better than he dribbles has felt compelled to share the same old tale .
sad
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It depicts the sad tale of a lavatory attendant, Jim, who reads newspapers to seek a new career.
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She confessed to cleaning his house, and also told her own sad tale .
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It was no longer believed to be a sad tale of the power of fortune to undermine love.
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A sad tale about a man who died at the age of 103 because no one would give him any money.
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A sad little tale it sounded, a trivial matter to consign a soul to perpetual separation.
tall
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He wowed his colleagues after hours with tall tales .
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No Baron Munchausen would have dared to imprison his saga within the limits of a tall tale .
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And yet all his life, his integrity warred with a flair for the theatrical, a fondness for tall tales .
■ NOUN
morality
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The problem is that, as with any morality tale , this is a very partial truth.
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No wonder we prefer the simplicity of morality tales with comforting villains.
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Arthurian legends or the morality tales of life under capitalism were not enough.
■ VERB
hear
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I heard tales , let me see, about a second child having visions, of a somewhat different sort?
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But I have to hear the whole tale .
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We used to hear tales that some of the singers could be difficult.
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Edward believed it when he heard the tale .
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She'd heard sickening tales of barbarous Gestapo torture, and of prisoners who were never seen again.
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She'd heard the stories - everybody had heard the tale about Jenny being abandoned here as a baby.
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Don't want to hear no tales told about you from them nice nurses.
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I've heard some pretty grim tales from people who've let property complete with furnishings to strangers.
listen
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I listened to many tales of powerlessness, of personal degradation, hopelessness and unhappiness.
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I listened to their tales of spiritual enlightenment, past lives, cosmic futures.
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You must listen to their interminable tales of marital woe.
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And he in turn makes it the experience of those who are listening to his tale .
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His morose ruminations were interrupted by Benny Katz, who wanted anyone he could find to listen to his tale of woe.
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The therapist listened to her tale of being afraid to ask anyone for money.
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In fact, these were the kind of difficulties about which they used to chuckle when listening to tales from Windowswedded acquaintances.
read
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Several read both tales as moral dramas in which human sin is revealed, judged and punished.
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May we never read such a tale of horror in our newspapers.
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Some of his exploits read like folk tales .
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Second, to actually read the tales aloud from a book would take half an hour each evening.
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I had read Eothen and other tales of Eastern travel and my imagination endowed Constantinople with all the magic of the East.
recount
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Certainly, he seemed strangely quiet and bemused as he recounted the extraordinary tale .
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They saw a sometimes remorseful, if inarticulate and profane, Davis recount his now-familiar tale of killing 12-year-old Polly.
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So far he hasn't had too many problems but doubtless he could recount some interesting tales !
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I spend a lot of time recounting tales of woe from friends and readers, but this one is my own.
spin
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But Riva still spins her tales , for Rainbow's ears alone.
tell
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Bigger waves undoubtedly occur, but those who witness them do not return to tell the tale .
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I did not propose to tell them any tales about the Ku Klux Klan.
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Then I told about the tales the neighbours were telling about her Mum and her men friends.
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It is a prettily told tale , after the manner of Ovid.
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You told me tales and adventures.
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Another famous senator who switched and survived politically to tell the tale is Phil Gramm of Texas.
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But it takes a mighty age to tell its tale and dives head-first into the soap suds along the way.
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What could have led the President to tell such tales ?
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
old wives' tale
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It's not true that if trees have a lot of fruit in the autumn it will be a cold winter - that's just an old wives' tale.
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And so the old wives' tale continues.
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I think it's an old wives' tale that make-up ruins the skin.
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Some dismiss these as myth in the sense of old wives' tales.
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That's only an old wives' tale.
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The old wives' tales that have answered the pleas of fathers for centuries are mostly ineffective.
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Whatever doctors, old wives' tales, and the Roman Catholic Church may say, human ovulation is invisible and unpredictable.
spin a tale/story/yarn
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He could spin a yarn, and you had to take what he said with a pinch of salt.
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Joe was in top form, spinning stories, issuing pronunciamentos, dropping withering quips at every opportunity.
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She liked to spin yarn, sing, and dance.
tall story/tale
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And yet all his life, his integrity warred with a flair for the theatrical, a fondness for tall tales.
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But there's still time to remember tall stories from previous superintendents.
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He wowed his colleagues after hours with tall tales.
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Horden's design blended innovation and massing A tall story or a tourdeforce?
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No Baron Munchausen would have dared to imprison his saga within the limits of a tall tale.
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With his feeling for tall stories he's a radio natural, though.
tell tales
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As soon as she entered the room she knew that Clare had already been telling tales; or at least complaining to her colleagues.
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Edwin was long on charm but short on substance, was the feeling; he told tales a bit too deftly.
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I don't want to tell tales out of school.
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Nearly anyone who had been in an iron lung could tell tales of being stranded without breathing help.
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No child should be put in the powerful position of having to tell tales on another child.
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No one to tell tales, then.
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Of course, Albee is quite accustomed to telling tales about vicious people stuck in broken relationships.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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'Treasure Island' - a tale of pirates and adventure
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Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales
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She told us many tales about when our father was a child.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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Aline's insight underlined my conviction on holiday that this was one tale not for retelling.
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All the same, signalmen can be a fund of unexpected tales and it is always interesting to hear their stories.
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But as James' tale develops, it assumes complexity.
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But her unbalanced monologues feel a bit artificial, her present tragedy less gripping than her tale of the past.
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During breaks, the group tells presentation disaster tales.
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Her story received enormous media coverage, perhaps because many people were fascinated with this incredible tale of political transformations.
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In other words, the critical key to James's tales is provided by the tales themselves.