tell apart

tell apart
verb
1. detect with the senses (Freq. 1)
-

The fleeing convicts were picked out of the darkness by the watchful prison guards

-

I can't make out the faces in this photograph

• Syn:
• Derivationally related forms: ↑discernible (for: ↑discern), ↑discernment (for: ↑discern)
• Hyponyms: ↑resolve, ↑discriminate
• Entailment: ↑perceive, ↑comprehend
• Verb Frames:
-

Somebody ——s something

-

Somebody ——s somebody

2. mark as different
-

We distinguish several kinds of maple

• Syn:
• Derivationally related forms: ↑difference (for: ↑differentiate), ↑differentiation (for: ↑differentiate), ↑differentiator (for: ↑differentiate), ↑distinction (for: ↑distinguish)
• Hypernyms: ↑identify, ↑place
• Hyponyms:
• Entailment: ↑compare
• Verb Frames:
-

Somebody ——s something

-

Somebody ——s somebody

-

Somebody ——s something from somebody

* * *

tell apart
To distinguish between
• • •
Main Entry: ↑tell

* * *

ˌtell a ˈpart [transitive] [present tense I/you/we/they tell apart he/she/it tells apart present participle telling apart past tense told apart past participle told apart] phrasal verb
to recognize the difference between two people or things that are very similar

The two women are so similar that only their husbands can tell them apart.

Thesaurus: to notice or recognize something or someonesynonym
Main entry: tell

* * *

distinguish or separate one from another

the twins were so identical that it was impossible to tell them apart

* * *

tell apart [phrasal verb]
tell (someone or something) apart : to see what the differences are between (people or things) : to identify (people or things that look similar to each other)

They look so much alike that I can barely/hardly/scarcely tell them apart.

It is hard telling the twins apart.

• • •
Main Entry: ↑tell

Useful english dictionary. 2012.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • tell apart — tell (someone/something) apart to be able to see the difference between one person or thing and another. One guy s a Democrat and the other s a Republican, but it wasn t always easy to tell them apart. The twins are no longer as hard to tell… …   New idioms dictionary

  • tell apart — index differentiate, discriminate (distinguish) Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • tell apart — phrasal verb [transitive] Word forms tell apart : present tense I/you/we/they tell apart he/she/it tells apart present participle telling apart past tense told apart past participle told apart tell someone/something apart to recognize the… …   English dictionary

  • tell apart — PHRASAL VERB If you can tell people or things apart, you are able to recognize the differences between them and can therefore identify each of them. [V n P] Perhaps it is the almost universal use of flavourings that makes it so hard to tell the… …   English dictionary

  • tell apart — {v. phr.} To see the difference between; know each of. * /The teacher could not tell the twins apart./ …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • tell apart — {v. phr.} To see the difference between; know each of. * /The teacher could not tell the twins apart./ …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • tell\ apart — v. phr. To see the difference between; know each of. The teacher could not tell the twins apart …   Словарь американских идиом

  • tell apart — distinguish between two things or people It is hard to tell the two sisters apart …   Idioms and examples

  • tell apart — verb To be able to know the difference between things; to distinguish. They are identical twins, and if they dress the same, everybody has trouble telling them apart …   Wiktionary

  • tell apart — v. know the difference between, distinguish …   English contemporary dictionary

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