Noun

(en noun)

(obsolete) Number.

(obsolete) Account; estimation; regard; heed.

(obsolete) Speech; language.

(obsolete) A speech; a statement; talk; conversation; discourse.

(legal, obsolete) A count; declaration.

(rare, or, archaic) Numbering; enumeration; reckoning; account; count.

* (John Dryden)

Both number twice a day the milky dams; And once she takes the tale of all the lambs.

(rare, or, archaic) A number of things considered as an aggregate; sum.

(rare, or, archaic) A report of any matter; a relation; a version.

An account of an asserted fact or circumstance; a rumour; a report, especially an idle or malicious story; a piece of gossip or slander; a lie.

* , chapter=7

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=“A very welcome, kind, useful present, that means to the parish. By the way, Hopkins, let this go no further. We don't want the tale running round that a rich person has arrived. Churchill, my dear fellow, we have such greedy sharks, and wolves in lamb's clothing. […]”}}

A rehearsal of what has occurred; narrative; discourse; statement; history; story.

A number told or counted off; a reckoning by count; an enumeration.

* Hooker

the ignorant, who measure by tale , and not by weight

* Milton

And every shepherd tells his tale , / Under the hawthorn in the dale.

* Carew

In packing, they keep a just tale of the number.

* 1843 (Thomas Carlyle), '', book 2, ch. 5, ''Twelfth Century

They proceeded with some rigour, these Custodiars; took written inventories, clapt-on seals, exacted everywhere strict tale and measure

(slang) The fraudulent opportunity presented by a confidence man to the mark (sense 3.3) of a confidence game.

Noun

(en noun)