Definition of "tale" []

• A recital of events or happenings; a report or revelation: told us a long tale of woe. (noun)
• A malicious story, piece of gossip, or petty complaint. (noun)
• A deliberate lie; a falsehood. (noun)
• A narrative of real or imaginary events; a story. (noun)
• Archaic A tally or reckoning; a total. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "A form of creative reaction, which will be a part of the language return given by the first-grade child from the telling of the tale, will be his _reading of the tale_."
• "I haven't got the vaguest idea why August Derleth made it the title tale of his first HPL compendium, and I've got only condescending, insulting ideas why it seems to take such central place in Lovecraft criticism since."
• "And the last story, the title tale, features a knight of the realm, no less, who ends up being committed to Broadmoor Lunatic Asylum , as it was known in those days."