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any rehearsal of what has occured; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story. "The tale of Troy divine." Milton. "In such manner rime is Dante's tale." Chaucer. We spend our years as a tale that is told. Ps. xc. 9.

One who officiously tells tales; one who impertinently or maliciously communicates intelligence, scandal, etc., and makes mischief. Spies and talebearers, encouraged by her father, did their best to inflame her resentment. Macaulay.

Telling tales officiously.

A kind of quadrangular piece of cloth put on by the Jews when repeating prayers in the synagogues. Crabb.

Full of stories. [R.] Thomson.

A genus of Australian birds which includes the brush turkey. See Brush turkey.

Greeks, a weight and a denomination of money equal to 60 minæ or 6,000 drachmæ. The Attic talent, as a weight, was about 57 lbs. avoirdupois; as a denomination of silver money, its value was £243 15s. sterling, or about $1,180. Rowing vessel whose burden does not exceed five hundred talents. Jowett (Thucid.).…

Furnished with talents; possessing skill or talent; mentally gifted. Abp. Abbot (1663).

The writ by which such persons are summoned. Tales book, a book containing the names of such as are admitted of the tales. Blount. Craig. -- Tales de circumstantibus Etym: [L.], such, or the like, from those standing about.

A person called to make up a deficiency in the number of jurors when a tales is awarded. Wharton.

One who tells tales or stories, especially in a mischievous or officious manner; a talebearer; a telltale; a tattler.

In a way of a tale or story.

Not defective; complete; as, an acatalectic verse. -- n.

Incomprehensibility of things; the doctrine held by the ancient Skeptic philosophers, that human knowledge never amounts to certainty, but only to probability.

Incapable of being comprehended; incomprehensible.

A verse wanting two syllables at its termination.

A projecting beam, truss, or bridge unsupported at the outer end; one which overhangs. Cantalever bridge, a bridge in which the principle of the cantalever is applied. It is usually a trussed bridge, composed of two portions reaching out from opposite banks, and supported near the middle of their own length on piers wh…

A talebearer. [R.] Shak.

Wanting a syllable at the end, or terminating in an imperfect foot; as, a catalectic verse.

A sudden suspension of sensation and volition, the body and limbs preserving the position that may be given them, while the action of the heart and lungs continues.