Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(also yarn pitcher) one who tells a good story, a romantic; thus a race-course tipster or confidence trickster.

1898		Binstead & Wells A Pink ’Un and a Pelican 190: Greenhorns may just as well fall into the landing-net of the racing tale-pitcher or card-sharper as be taken by the gaff of a Hobbs or a Balfour.
1900		Sporting Times 2 June 2/1: It is during race-time, too, that Araminta, our only ‘general,’ has to interview assorted merchants, inebriates, magicians, and talepitchers.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 19 Oct. 2/5: Probably the most abject apology for a ‘sport’ is the racecourse punter. Years of listening to tale-pitchers have elongated bis lugs to an abnormal degree.
1906		O.C. Malvery Soul Market 290: A few of the men — and these were the better dressed — were professional ‘tale-pitchers’ [...] went off every morning to the West End of London in search of plunder, or ‘mug-finding,’ as they called their profession.

(orig. Aus.) a confidence trickster; a fraudulent racecourse tipster.

1900		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 17 Oct. 1/2: Does this account for Sydney being over-run with thieves, tale-tellers, welshers and wires?
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 27 Feb. 1/1: The red-raw rascality practised [...] by their tale-tellers, tip-slingers and tugs.
1922		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 2 Dec. 18/1: Brum, as a tale-teller and urger, stands in a class on his own.
1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 33: The two ‘professions’ of which he was a past-master — a tale-teller and a jewel tracker.

(US black campus) to feel bad.

1947

M.H. Boulware Jive and Sl. n.p.: Ain’t got no tale ... I don’t feel good.

(UK und.) working as a racecourse confidence trickster.

1935		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 1: At the tale: Working the confidence trick on a race course.
1950		P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 189/1: At the Tale. Working a confidence trick.

to be fooled by a confidence trickster.

1900

Sporting Times 31 Mar. 2/1: Workers, shirkers, everyone copped the tale, / ‘It’s just as fat as sin; / E’d fall down twice an’ win.’.

(Aus.) working as a confidence trickster.

1901

Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 4 Sept. 1/1: Racecourse thieves, who gain their living ‘on the tale’.

to tell a story.

1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 72: You’re awright if you pitch your tale wivout ’esitating.
1905		E. Wallace Four Just Men 166: I could easily pitch a tale that would take you in.
1912		A. Wright Rung In (1931) 271: I saw one of the reporters and pitched him a tale.
1915		Truth (Wellington) 22 May 7: The first damsel with a tale to pitch into S’onor’s lug was Ellen Mackenzie.
1924		G.H. Lawson Dict. of Aus. Words And Terms 🌐 PITCH A TALE — Tell an untruth.
1957		D. Niland Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 223: Why believe every biddy that comes pitching tales about a man?

1. to deceive, to hoax, to cheat through verbal dexterity.

1895		Derby Mercury 9 Jan. 8/3: So we tells him a tale and he gives Selby seven and a tanner.
1898		N. Clifford [perf. Vesta Tilley] In the Pale Moonlight 🎵 And they walked and talked together in the pale moonlight; / Each told the other such a fairy tale.
1903		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Sept. 16/1: And I wished my mate had never told the tale! / For they called poor Bill a liar, and a ‘take-down,’ and a ‘skite,’ / And they swore they’d knock his head off without fail!
1905		A. Binstead Mop Fair 208: No art known to moderns [...] which is netting more money for its artificers than the art of ‘telling the tale.’.
1908		Truth (Brisbane) 12 Apr. 9/3: Sum goes on the theevin lay:; / Sum do tell a retched tail / Tries to cadge a bean that way.
1912		Leamington Spa Courier 20 Sept. 7/1: ‘Warty’ is [...] a past master at the art of ‘telling the tale’.
1925		E. Jervis 25 Years in Six Prisons 17: Some of the boys are ‘on the whiz’ (pickpockets), or ‘go screwing’ (burglars) or ‘telling the tale’ (confidence trick) or ‘tweedling.’.
1930		‘Leslie Charteris’ Enter the Saint 46: Are you taken in by everyone who tells you the tale.
1936		W.A. Gape Half a Million Tramps 192: Begging, gagging, telling-the-tale or pitching the fork, it’s all the same.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 4: Permitting the insideman to show him how he can make a large amount of money dishonestly. (Telling him the tale.).
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 201: You’re a lovely feller, Ern [...] but it’s no good of me telling you the tale, is it?
1956		R.T. Hopkins Banker Tells All 127: The mosker relies on telling the tale and inducing the pawnbroker to believe that the goods he offers are family treasures.

2. to engage in amorous talk.

1905		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘A Polyglot Policeman’ Sporting Times 1 Apr. 1/4: Although his nibs has tried with all his might / To get round her, he can’t tell the tale to her.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 113: Me brother Tom [...] used to follow ’em up, and ’ide be’ind a ’edge to ’ear ’em tellin’ the tale.
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 167: ‘What a lucky guy I am sitting in the back beside you.’ ‘Don’t you tell the tale?’ ‘Don’t worry, my love, we’ll be out of town soon and it won’t matter what the people think and I’ll show you I can do something beside tell the tale.’.

3. to tell any kind of unbelievable or pathetic story.

1975		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 164: Think I’d tell you a tale — wiv him breathin’ hard on our backs?
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 84: That’s what these jailhouses are for, tellin them Tales.

(US black campus) a greeting, how are you?

1947

M.H. Boulware Jive and Sl.