tell-all
See also: tell all
English
editNoun
edit- A publication, usually a book or magazine article, which tells all, revealing everything, particularly what is normally withheld.
- 1998, Laurie Stone, Close to the Bone: Memoirs of Hurt, Rage, and Desire, page xi:
- At this point, we could all write a tell-all about our tabloid childhoods and contrive an autobiographical performance about the pleasures of humiliation.
- 2009, Kennedy Shaw, Tour of Duty, page 308:
- Mikerra had been offered a seven-figure book deal for a tell-all chronicling her relationship with Senator McCaffrey, his death, and the project's ultimate demise.
- 2010, Zoe Fishman, Balancing Acts: A Novel, page 357:
- Surprise! I wrote a tell-all about each and every one of you!
- 2011, Star Jones, Satan's Sisters: A Novel Work of Fiction, page 23:
- Of all the people in the world to write a tell-all about The Lunch Club, it had to be Missy Adams?!
- 2023 September 30, Victoria Bekiempis, “‘Dark’ donations, free love and the fall: the Sam Bankman-Fried trial is here”, in The Guardian[1], →ISSN:
- The highly anticipated proceedings are poised to serve as a tell-all on FTX and Alameda’s shocking downfall, with jurors weighing whether Bankman-Fried callously lined his pockets with hapless investors’ money. Ellison will play a pivotal role in the case.
Adjective
edittell-all (not comparable)
- Telling all; revealing everything, particularly what is normally withheld.
- The statesman's tell-all memoirs were not published until long after death.
- Open source is a tell-all software development strategy.
- 2022 April 5, Tina Brown, “How Princess Diana’s Dance With the Media Impacted William and Harry”, in Vanity Fair[3]:
- More unsettling was the origin story of the infamous tell-all book Princess in Love. Diana claimed to be outraged in 1994 when Daily Express journalist Anna Pasternak spilled the beans of her affair with former army officer James Hewitt […]
- 2023 February 22, Alexi Duggins, “‘Baseless nonsense’: Meghan and Harry won’t sue South Park for mocking them”, in The Guardian[4], →ISSN:
- The Princess of Canada is a “sorority girl, actress, influencer, victim”, while her husband, the prince, has written a tell-all book about his family and the media called “Waaagh!”.