Hiss-and-tell

adj, slang

adj, slang ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Disclosing private information in a hostile manner. idiomatic, informal, not-comparable

    "But Miller's tale is as notable for what it isn't as for what it is. It is not a hiss-and-tell attempt to settle scores and mold history like Donald Regan's For the Record, a spin-doctored account of his time as President Reagan's chief of staff."

Example

More examples

"But Miller's tale is as notable for what it isn't as for what it is. It is not a hiss-and-tell attempt to settle scores and mold history like Donald Regan's For the Record, a spin-doctored account of his time as President Reagan's chief of staff."

Etymology

Blend of hiss + kiss and tell.

More for "hiss-and-tell"

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