/ teɪl; NAmE / noun
1.
a story created using the imagination, especially one that is full of action and adventure :
Dickens' 'A Tale of Two Cities'
a fairy / moral / romantic, etc. tale
—see also folk tale
2.
an exciting spoken description of an event, which may not be completely true :
I love listening to his tales of life at sea.
I've heard tales of people seeing ghosts in that house.
The team's tale of woe continued on Saturday (= they lost another match) .
Her experiences provide a cautionary tale (= a warning) for us all.
—see also telltale
•
IDIOMS
see old , tell
••
WORD ORIGIN
Old English talu telling, something told , of Germanic origin; related to Dutch taal speech and German Zahl number, also to tell .