a. (adv.) [See TELL v. 21, 2.]

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  1.  Counted or reckoned twice; twice as much as, twice (in amount). (Usually following the word or phrase qualified.) † In quot. 1579 advb. = in a twofold degree, doubly.

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1430–40.  Lydg., Bochas, I. xiv. (MS. Bodl. 263), 64/1. Vpon my fyngirs fyue twies told I hadde ryngis.

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1579.  Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 472/2. We see also yt we are guiltie twise tolde.

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1678.  Bunyan, Pilgr., I. 195. An hundred times, twice told.

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1742.  Young, Nt. Th., IV. 66. Twice-told the period spent on stubborn Troy, Court-favour, yet untaken, I besiege.

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  2.  Narrated or related twice.

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1595.  Shaks., John, III. iv. 108. Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale.

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1725.  Pope, Odyssey, XII. 538. What so tedious as a twice-told tale?

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1826.  F. Reynolds, Life & Times, I. 94. I will now merely state, (to avoid a twice told tale,) that we arrived.

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1837.  Hawthorne (title), Twice-Told Tales.

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