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Telltale vs Tattle - What's the difference?

telltale | tattle |

As nouns the difference between telltale and tattle

is that telltale is one who divulges private information with intent to hurt others while tattle is a tattletale.

As an adjective telltale

is revealing something not intended to be known.

As a verb tattle is

(pejorative) to report others' wrongdoings or violations; to tell on somebody; to gossip or to disclose incriminating information.

telltale

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • One who divulges private information with intent to hurt others.
  • (chiefly, US, slang) Tattletale; squealer.
  • Something that serves to reveal something else.
    • The telltale was the lipstick on his shirt collar.
  • (music) A movable piece of ivory, lead, or other material, connected to the bellows of an organ, whose position indicates when the wind is exhausted.
  • (nautical) A length of yarn or ribbon attached to a sail or shroud etc to indicate the direction of the flow of the air relative to the boat.
  • (nautical) A mechanical attachment to the steering wheel, which, in the absence of a tiller, shows the position of the helm.
  • (nautical) A compass in the cabin of a vessel, usually placed where the captain can see it at all hours, and thus inform himself of the vessel's course.
  • (engineering) A machine or contrivance for indicating or recording something, particularly for keeping a check upon employees (factory hands, watchmen, drivers, etc.) by revealing to their employers what they have done or omitted.
  • A bird, the tattler.
    • (Webster 1913)

    Synonyms

    * (one who divulges private information) blabbermouth, gossip, rumormonger, talebearer

    Related terms

    * tell tales

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • revealing something not intended to be known
    • His eye was blinking, a telltale signal that he was lying.
    He blushed when he approached, a telltale sign that he was happy to see him.

    Derived terms

    * telltale compass

    tattle

    English

    Verb

  • (pejorative) To report others' wrongdoings or violations; to tell on somebody; to gossip or to disclose incriminating information.
  • To chatter.
  • * 1599 ,
    • BEATRICE. He were an excellent man that were made just in the mid-way between him and Benedick: the one is too like an image, and says nothing; and the other too like my lady's eldest son, evermore tattling .
  • * Dryden
    • the tattling quality of age, which is always narrative

    Synonyms

    * blow the whistle, rat on, sing, snitch, squeal * gossip; see also

    Noun

    (-)
  • A tattletale.
  • Gossip; idle talk.

    • Related terms

    * tattletale