tell off
verb
told off; telling off; tells off
2
: to number and set apart
especially
: to assign to a special duty
told off a detail and put them to opening a trench —
J. F. Dobie
J. F. Dobie Examples of tell off in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The crowd then roared with cheers when Kendrick told off the director.
—Zack Sharf, Variety, 28 Oct. 2024
Leonard Maltin, a staunch critic of the first movie, gets eaten by Gremlins followed by the little menaces taking over a theater before being told off by none other than Hulk Hogan.
—EW.com, 17 Oct. 2024
This was particularly the case during the nuclear talks, where the most hardline factions were told off by Khamenei.
—Ariane M. Tabatabai, Foreign Affairs, 26 May 2017
Joe Biden tried to tell off a journalist the other day.
—Rich Lowry, National Review, 16 June 2024
Probably got told off for not saying please or thank you for a while.
—Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 3 Apr. 2024
The sources Fortune spoke to said some hires use their weekdays to learn how to scuba dive, while managers told off the candidates for asking too many questions.
—Eleanor Pringle, Fortune, 7 May 2024
And yet, crucially, nearly every single time, he is told off, cast out, ignored, tsked, dumped, pitchforked, closed in on.
—Wesley Morris Ron Butler Emma Kehlbeck Ted Blaisdell, New York Times, 5 Apr. 2024
Smoking weed and telling off Catholic priests are just two of the ways Malu Rocha (Yara de Novaes) asserts her rebellious spirit.
—Carlos Aguilar, Variety, 27 Jan. 2024
Zack Sharf, Variety, 28 Oct. 2024
Leonard Maltin, a staunch critic of the first movie, gets eaten by Gremlins followed by the little menaces taking over a theater before being told off by none other than Hulk Hogan.
—EW.com, 17 Oct. 2024
This was particularly the case during the nuclear talks, where the most hardline factions were told off by Khamenei.
—Ariane M. Tabatabai, Foreign Affairs, 26 May 2017
Joe Biden tried to tell off a journalist the other day.
—Rich Lowry, National Review, 16 June 2024
Probably got told off for not saying please or thank you for a while.
—Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 3 Apr. 2024
The sources Fortune spoke to said some hires use their weekdays to learn how to scuba dive, while managers told off the candidates for asking too many questions.
—Eleanor Pringle, Fortune, 7 May 2024
And yet, crucially, nearly every single time, he is told off, cast out, ignored, tsked, dumped, pitchforked, closed in on.
—Wesley Morris Ron Butler Emma Kehlbeck Ted Blaisdell, New York Times, 5 Apr. 2024
Smoking weed and telling off Catholic priests are just two of the ways Malu Rocha (Yara de Novaes) asserts her rebellious spirit.
—Carlos Aguilar, Variety, 27 Jan. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tell off.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Tell off.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tell%20off. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
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