tell tales out of school
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.07 in modern English
28
Scrabble Score
20
Letters
3
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To reveal confidential or sensitive information; to gossip.
Example Sentences
- "I see then we have both been at school. But did you never, when you were there, hear it said, "Tell no tales out of school?""
- "Mr. Washington had seen the gentlemen of honour and fashion over their cups, and perhaps thought that all their sayings and doings were not precisely such as would tend to instruct or edify a young man on his entrance into life; but he wisely chose to tell no tales out of school."
- "[T]he boys laughed and nudged one another, for it was evident that some one told tales out of school, else how could he know of the existence of these inconvenient treasures."
- ""But now maybe I'm telling tales out of school," he added, with a laugh. "I shouldn't like to get the little girl into trouble.""
- ""Don't blush, Katherine, I am sure Mr. Willoughby won't tell any tales out of school to your old Valleyfield friends.""
- ""He wound up in the emergency room three different times, twice in Connecticut and once down here. The first two were drug ODs. I'm not telling tales out of school, because all that's been reported—exhaustively—in the press.""