tally Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a score in baseball made by a runner touching all four bases safely
    run.
    • the Yankees scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th
    • their first tally came in the 3rd inning
  2. noun a bill for an amount due
    reckoning.
  3. noun the act of counting; reciting numbers in ascending order
    count; counting; enumeration; reckoning; numeration.
    • the counting continued for several hours
  4. verb be compatible, similar or consistent; coincide in their characteristics
    gibe; fit; correspond; agree; jibe; check; match.
    • The two stories don't agree in many details
    • The handwriting checks with the signature on the check
    • The suspect's fingerprints don't match those on the gun
  5. verb gain points in a game
    rack up; score; hit.
    • The home team scored many times
    • He hit a home run
    • He hit .300 in the past season
  6. verb keep score, as in games
    chalk up.
  7. verb determine the sum of
    tot up; add up; sum; tote up; tot; add; summate; total; sum up; add together.
    • Add all the people in this town to those of the neighboring town

WordNet

Tal"ly noun
Etymology
OE. taile, taille, F. taille a cutting, cut tally, fr. tailler to cut, but influenced probably by taillé, p.p. of tailler. See Tailor, and cf. Tail a limitation, Taille, Tallage.
Wordforms
plural Tallies
Definitions
  1. Originally, a piece of wood on which notches or scores were cut, as the marks of number; later, one of two books, sheets of paper, etc., on which corresponding accounts were kept. ✍ In purshasing and selling, it was once customary for traders to have two sticks, or one stick cleft into two parts, and to mark with a score or notch, on each, the number or quantity of goods delivered, -- the seller keeping one stick, and the purchaser the other. Before the use of writing, this, or something like it, was the only method of keeping accounts; and tallies were received as evidence in courts of justice. In the English exchequer were tallies of loans, one part being kept in the exchequer, the other being given to the creditor in lieu of an obligation for money lent to government.
  2. Hence, any account or score kept by notches or marks, whether on wood or paper, or in a book; especially, one kept in duplicate.
  3. One thing made to suit another; a match; a mate.
    They were framed the tallies for each other. Dryden.
  4. A notch, mark, or score made on or in a tally; as, to make or earn a tally in a game.
  5. A tally shop. See Tally shop, below.
Tal"ly transitive verb
Etymology
Cf. F. tialler to cut. See Tally, n.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Tallied ; present participle & verbal noun Tallying
Definitions
  1. To score with correspondent notches; hence, to make to correspond; to cause to fit or suit.
    They are not so well tallied to the present juncture. Pope.
  2. (Naut.) To check off, as parcels of freight going inboard or outboard. W. C. Russell.
Tal"ly intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To be fitted; to suit; to correspond; to match.
    I found pieces of tiles that exactly tallied with the channel. Addison.
    Your idea . . . tallies exactly with mine. Walpole.
  2. To make a tally; to score; as, to tally in a game.
Tal"ly adverb
Etymology
See Tall, a.
Definitions
  1. Stoutly; with spirit. Obs. Beau. & Fl.

Webster 1913