[f. TELL v. + -ING1.] The action of the verb TELL.
1. The action of relating, making known, or saying; relation; communication, conversation (now dial.).
13[?]. Cursor M., 29163 (Cott. Galba). If þe prest … Be vnwise in his gifing, Or els be synful in his telling.
1382. Wyclif, 2 Macc. ii. 25. The tellyngis of stories.
1390. Gower, Conf., I. 296. So wolde I my wordes plie, That mihten Wraththe and Cheste avale With tellinge of my softe tale.
1546. J. Heywood, Prov. (1867), 67. A good tale yll tolde, in the tellyng is marde.
1700. Dryden, Prof. Fables, Wks. (Globe), 496. The form which he has given to the telling makes the tale his own.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, I. 117. The theatres here are beautiful beyond all telling.
1869. Mrs. Stowe, Oldtown Folks, II. xxi. There was talk everywhere of the little story, and, as usual, nothing was lost in the telling.
1906. Athenæum, 13 Oct., 434. The narrative loses nothing in the telling.
b. An account, description. Now dial. or arch.
1382. Wyclif, 1 John i. 5. This is the tellyng, that we herden of him, and tellen to ȝou.
1904. Blackw. Mag., Dec., 811/2. The father was a terrible man by all tellings.
c. Phrase that’s telling(s, that would be to divulge something secret. colloq.
1837. Marryat, Dog-fiend, xiv. ‘Where is this cargo to be seen, and when?’… ‘That’s tellings,’ replied the man.
1878. E. Jenkins, Haverholme, 178. ‘How do you get your information?’ ‘That’s tellings,’ said the Monsignor.
1905. ‘Q’ (Quiller-Couch), Shining Ferry, III. xxv. 322. ‘That’s telling,’ he answered darkly.
2. The action of counting or numbering.
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, II. i. (Skeat), I. 114. I can not passen the tellinge of thre as yet.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 488/1 Tellynge, or nowmerynge, numeracio.
1589. [? Lyly], Pappe w. Hatchet, Ej b. I thinke them [sheep] woorth neither the tarring, nor the telling.
1594. Plat, Jewell-ho., III. 89. There must bee no time lost in the telling [of the money].
1689. Answ. Lords & Commoner’s Sp., 12. Notwithstanding the often telling of Noses.
1847. Infantry Man. (1854), 60. The telling off by threes.
1901. Scotsman, 13 March, 9/4. This mixed telling did not mean mixed voting, for the division closely followed party lines.
† b. transf. Value, amount, force. Obs. rare–1.
1636. Rutherford, Lett. (1862), I. 188. There is much telling in Christ’s Kindness!
3. Comb., as † telling-board, -house: see quots.
1552. Huloet, *Tellinge bourde or table for exchaunge to tell money.
1597. Catal. Anc. Deeds (1906), V. 485. In the *Telling howse usuallie appointed for receiptes and paimentes.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., ii., note. The ‘telling-houses’ on the moor are rude cots where the shepherds meet, to tell their sheep at the end of the pasturing season.
