tale W3 /teɪl/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Language: Old English ; Origin: talu ]
1 . a story about exciting imaginary events
tale of
tales of adventure
a book of old Japanese folk tales (=traditional stories)
a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen
a cautionary tale (=one that is told to warn people about the dangers of something)
2 . a description of interesting or exciting things that happened to someone, often one which is not completely true about every detail
tale of/about
tales of her life in post-war Berlin
tale of/about how
He was in the middle of telling me a long tale about how he once met the Redskins’ manager.
3 . tell tales British English to tell someone in authority about something wrong that someone else has done SYN tattle American English
tell tales to
Don’t go telling tales to the teacher!
4 . tale of woe
a) a description of events that made you unhappy
b) a series of bad things that happened to someone:
The England team’s tale of woe continued, and they lost the next three games.
⇨ ↑ fairy tale , ⇨ old wives’ tale at ↑ old (24)
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COLLOCATIONS (for Meanings 1 & 2)
■ ADJECTIVES/NOUN + tale
▪ a fairy tale
It looked like a castle in a fairy tale.
▪ a folk tale (=a traditional story)
a book of Scottish folk tales
▪ a cautionary tale (=one that is told to warn someone about the dangers of something)
This cautionary tale illustrates the dangers of looking for quick profits.
▪ a tall tale (=one that is difficult to believe and unlikely to be true)
She enjoyed making up tall tales to tell the children.
■ verbs
▪ tell a tale
He liked telling tales of his adventures in the wilderness.
• • •
THESAURUS
▪ story a description of how something happened that is intended to entertain people, and may be true or imaginary:
a ghost story
|
a love story
|
It’s a story about a man who loses his memory.
|
a book of short stories
▪ tale a story about strange imaginary events, or exciting events that happened in the past:
a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen
|
I loved hearing tales of his travels.
▪ myth noun [uncountable and countable] a very old imaginary story about gods and magical creatures:
an ancient myth
|
Greek and Roman myths
▪ legend noun [uncountable and countable] an old story about brave people or magical events that are probably not true:
popular legends of the creation of the world
|
According to legend, King Arthur was buried there.
▪ fable a traditional imaginary short story that teaches a moral lesson, especially a story about animals:
the fable of the tortoise and the hare
|
a Chinese fable
▪ epic a story told in a long book, film, or poem which is about great or exciting events, especially in history:
an epic about 13th-century Scottish hero William Wallace
▪ saga a story about a series of events that take place over a long period of time, especially events involving one family:
a family saga beginning in the 1880s
▪ yarn informal a long exciting story that is not completely true:
The movie’s a rattling good yarn and full of action.