Betell

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To speak or tell about; declare; narrate; describe. transitive

    "Occasionally we do see some short-line road whose track and equipment are kept in such good repair as to betell of exceptional prosperity; […]"

  2. 2
    To speak for; answer for; justify. transitive
  3. 3
    To lay claim to; win; rescue. transitive
  4. 4
    To talk about negatively; slander; calumniate; deride; deceive. rare, transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
describe

Example

More examples

"Occasionally we do see some short-line road whose track and equipment are kept in such good repair as to betell of exceptional prosperity; […]"

Etymology

From Middle English betellen (“to tell about, calumniate”), from Old English betellan (“to speak about, answer, defend oneself against a charge or accusation”), equivalent to be- (“about, concerning”) + tell.

Related phrases

lay claim totalk about

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.