pray tell
7
8.8
- idiom
- Informal
:
dime
- Why, pray tell, should we believe you?!
- Then, pray tell
Then why, pray tell Shepherd, did I find this hat?
- Then why, pray tell Shepherd, did I find this hat?
- And why, pray tell, was the box spray painted black?
- OK, And what is their chief complaint, pray tell?
- And so I generally apply, well, how, pray tell, do I determine tissue damage in a living patient?
Examples
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And what, pray tell, might that be?
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And where, pray tell, do you expect the money to come from?
Blog text (13) -
And why, pray tell, should I trust you?
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And what would that be, pray tell?
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And what, pray tell, makes Bill your personal responsibility?
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And what, pray tell, did they decide to call it?
Blog text (19) -
And what, pray tell, will you gain from this, Mr. Thompson?
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And why, pray tell, was the box spray painted black?
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What joyous journey are we taking today, pray tell?
Fiction book (2000) -
And why, pray tell, should I trust you?
Synonyms
∞
2.7
Report someone's actions to the police or an authority
Antonyms
How Direct
Surface Forms
Morphology
The constituents 'pray' (make a humble request/please) and 'tell' (say/inform) combine to give the clear propositional meaning 'please tell (me)', so a learner who knows both words can often infer the basic request. However, the construction is somewhat archaic/formal and commonly carries ironic or discourse-marking nuances that are not predictable from the parts and require pragmatic exposure, so full understanding is not guaranteed at B1.
Etymology
Pray tell comes from older English where pray was a polite word meaning 'please' or 'I ask you', and tell simply meant 'say'. So today pray tell is used to ask for information, often to show 'surprise' or 'doubt'.