call
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: kôl
ipa: /kɔːl/
ipa: [kʰoɫ]
ipa: [qʰu]
ipa: /kaːl/
ipa: /kɔl/
ipa: [kʰɔɫ]
ipa: /kɑl/
ipa: [kʰɑɫ]
ipa: [kʰɔːɫ]
ipa: /koːl/
rhymes: -ɔːl
homophone: coll (cot–caught merger)
homophone: caw (l-vocalization)
Forms: form: calls
form: calling
form: called
form: called
form: call'd
form: call'd
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: call
form: call
form: called
form: callest
form: called
form: calledst
form: calls
form: calleth
form: called
form: call
form: called
form: call
form: called
form: call
form: -
form: calling
form: called
form: call'd
Etymology: From Middle English callen, from Old English ċeallian (“to call, shout”) and Old Norse kalla (“to call; shout; refer to as; name”); both from Proto-Germanic *kalzōną (“to call, shout”), from Proto-Indo-European *golH-so- (“voice, cry”), from *gel(H)- (“to vocalize, call, shout”).
Cognates
* Scots call, caw, ca (“to call, cry, shout”)
* Dutch kallen (“to chat, talk”),
* German kallen (“to call”)
* Swedish kalla (“to call, refer to, beckon”)
* Norwegian kalle (“to call, name”)
* Danish kalde (“to call, name”)
* Icelandic kalla (“to call, shout, name”)
* Welsh galw (“to call, demand”)
* Polish głos (“voice”)
* Lithuanian gal̃sas (“echo”)
* Russian голос (golos, “voice”)
* Albanian gjuhë (“language, tongue”).
Senses: examples: text: That person is hurt; call for help!
text: So they called for Rooms; and he ſhewed them one for Christiana and her Children and Mercy, and another for Mr. Great-heart and the old Gentleman.
ref: 1684, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress. From This World to That which is to Come: The Second Part. […], London: […] Nathaniel Ponder […], →OCLC; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress as Originally Published by John Bunyan: Being a Fac-simile Reproduction of the First Edition, London: Elliot Stock […], 1875, →OCLC, page 128:
topics: heading
glosses: To reach out with one's voice.
To request, summon, or beckon.
examples: text: "Supper's ready," called Dad from the kitchen.
text: If you heare a child crie in the night you must call to the nurſe and bid her ſtil it.
ref: 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:
text: For far—oh, very far behind, / So far she cannot call to him, / Comes Tegumai alone to find / The daughter that was all to him!
ref: 1902, Rudyard Kipling, “How the Alphabet was Made”, in Just So Stories: For Little Children, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, stanza 5, page 169:
topics: heading
glosses: To reach out with one's voice.
To cry or shout.
synonyms: word: holler
word: yell
word: call
word: cry
word: holler
word: roar
word: roop
word: scream
word: shout
word: yell
examples: text: to call the roll of a military company
text: Not ballad-ſinger plac'd above the croud, / Sings with a note ſo ſhrilling ſweet and loud, / Nor pariſh clerk who calls the pſalm ſo clear, / Like Bowzybeus ſooths th' attentive ear.
ref: 1714, J[ohn] Gay, “Saturday; or, The Flights”, in The Shepherd’s Week. In Six Pastorals, London: […] R. Burleigh […], →OCLC, page 56, lines 47–50:
topics: heading
glosses: To reach out with one's voice.
To utter in a loud or distinct voice.
examples: text: Why don’t you call me in the morning?
text: Why don’t you call tomorrow?
text: There they waited until after eleven, then Paulvitch took down the receiver of their telephone. He called a number.
ref: 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 41:
topics: heading
glosses: To reach out with one's voice.
To contact by telephone.
synonyms: word: drop a line
word: ring
word: get on the horn
word: give someone a ring
word: give someone a bell
word: telephone
word: call
word: call up
word: dial up
word: drop a line
word: get on the horn
word: give someone a bell
word: give someone a buzz
word: give someone a call
word: give someone a jingle
word: give someone a ring
word: give someone a tinkle
word: phone
word: ring
word: ring up
examples: text: Take not away the Taper, leaue it burning: / And if thou canſt awake by foure o’th’clock, / I prythee call me: Sleepe hath ceiz’d me wholly.
ref: 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 376, column 2:
topics: heading
glosses: To reach out with one's voice.
To rouse from sleep; to awaken.
synonyms: word: wake up
word: arouse
word: awake
word: awaken
word: bring round
word: cry
word: knock up
word: rouse
word: roust
word: uprouse
word: wake
word: wake up
word: waken
examples: text: They called I Got Rhythm, and turned to me again for a solo, and I said what?
ref: 1997, Saxophone Journal:
text: Jeff Castleman and Rufus Jones were in position when they went out, and he immediately called Satin Doll.
ref: 2002, Ken Vail, Duke's Diary:
text: I thought he forgot all about it, but late in the set he called St. Louis Blues.
ref: 2015, Clyde E. B. Bernhardt, I Remember: Eighty Years of Black Entertainment, Big Bands, and the Blues, University of Pennsylvania Press, →ISBN, page 98:
topics: heading
glosses: To reach out with one's voice.
To request that one's band play (a particular tune).
qualifier: jazz
examples: text: CALL 1 scold
ref: 1865, William Stott Banks, Wakefield Words, page 11:
topics: heading
glosses: To reach out with one's voice.
To scold.
examples: text: We could always call on a friend.
text: The engineer called round whilst you were away.
text: [...] He ordered Her to call at His Houſe once a Week, which She did for ſome Time; after which He heard no more of Her.
ref: a. 1700 (date written), William Temple, “Of Health and Long-life”, in Miscellanea. The Third Part. […], London: […] Jonathan Swift, […] Benjamin Tooke, […], published 1701, →OCLC, page 127:
text: The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 58:
topics: heading
glosses: To visit.
To pay a (social) visit (often used with "on", "round", or "at"; used by salespeople with "again" to invite customers to come again).
examples: text: This train calls at Reading, Slough and London Paddington.
text: Our cruise ship called at Bristol Harbour.
topics: heading
glosses: To visit.
To stop at a station or port.
examples: text: They say your love will surely fade, girl, / When things go wrong and trouble calls.
ref: 1968 December 8, Henry Cosby, Sylvia Moy, Stevie Wonder, “I’d Be a Fool Right Now”, in For Once in My Life, performed by Stevie Wonder, Tamla Records:
topics: heading
glosses: To visit.
To come to pass; to afflict.
examples: text: Why don’t we dispense with the formalities? Please call me Al.
text: Don't call me a liar.
text: I don't know how you and the 'head,' as you call him, will get on, but I do know that if you call my duds a 'livery' again there'll be trouble. It's bad enough to go around togged out like a life saver on a drill day, but I can stand that 'cause I'm paid for it. What I won't stand is to have them togs called a livery.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: The Bat—they called him the Bat. Like a bat he chose the night hours for his work of rapine; like a bat he struck and vanished, pouncingly, noiselessly; like a bat he never showed himself to the face of the day.
ref: 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Avery Hopwood, “The Shadow of the Bat”, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 6:
text: But the scandals kept coming, and so we entered stage three–what therapists call "bargaining". A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul. Instead it offers fixes and patches.
ref: 2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:
topics: heading
glosses: To name, identify, or describe.
To name or refer to.
synonyms: word: designate
word: dub
word: name
word: bename
word: call
word: clepe
word: denominate
word: designate
word: dub
word: entitle
word: name
word: nominate
word: style
word: term
examples: text: I’m called John.
text: A very tall building is called a skyscraper.
text: The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.
ref: 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:
topics: heading
glosses: To name, identify, or describe.
Of a person, to have as one's name; of a thing, to have as its name.
qualifier: passive voice
examples: text: They call the distance ten miles.
text: That’s enough work. Let's call it a day and go home.
text: The whole army is called 700,000 men
ref: 1842, Henry Brougham, Political Philosophy:
topics: heading
glosses: To name, identify, or describe.
To state, or estimate, approximately or loosely; to characterize without strict regard to fact.
examples: text: I call bullshit.
text: She called foul on their scheme.
text: Having been around the block a few times, I immediately called "shenanigans” on it, but even so, I was taken aback.
ref: 2008, PC Magazine:
topics: heading
glosses: To name, identify, or describe.
To claim the existence of some malfeasance; to denounce as.
examples: text: This ſpeech calls him Spaniard, being nothing but / A large inventory of his own commendations.
ref: c. 1608–1610, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “Philaster: Or, Love Lies a Bleeding”, in Fifty Comedies and Tragedies. […], [part 1], London: […] J[ohn] Macock [and H. Hills], for John Martyn, Henry Herringman, and Richard Marriot, published 1679, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 22, column 2:
topics: heading
glosses: To name, identify, or describe.
To disclose the class or character of; to identify.
examples: text: The captains call the coin toss.
topics: heading
glosses: To declare, or declare in favor of, a predicted or actual result.
To declare in advance.
examples: text: He called twelve of the last three recessions.
topics: heading
glosses: To declare, or declare in favor of, a predicted or actual result.
To predict.
synonyms: word: augur
word: foretell
word: anticipate
word: augur
word: call
word: divine
word: forecast
word: foredeem
word: forehold
word: foresee
word: foreshadow
word: foretell
word: predict
word: presage
word: prognosticate
word: prophesy
examples: text: “Let’s call it. Time of death, 08:45.” The respiratory therapist stopped bagging. The doctor stopped CPR. There was no heartbeat on the monitor. Michael was dead.
ref: 1997, Joanni Nelson Horchler, Robin Rice Morris, The SIDS Survival Guide: Information and Comfort for Grieving Family and Friends and Professionals who Seek to Help Them, page 33:
text: EXAMPLES: Time of death was called at 16:34(Incorrect). Time of death was called at 1634 p.m.(Incorrect). Time of death was called at 1634 hours(Correct). NOTE: Military (or 24-hour) time is not used with a.m, p.m, or o’clock. It is frequently used to state birth and death times, as well as time of day in autopsy protocols. It is customary to write the word hours after the figures.
ref: 2012, Marcy O. Diehl, Medical Transcription: Techniques and Procedures (Seventh Edition), page 127:
text: If you are staring your dream in the face and seeing that it is time to quit, I urge you to call the time of death right now. You can sit here with this book in your hand and do it, or climb to a mountaintop and shout it, or write it on a message in a bottle and throw it out to sea. However you do it, do it. I can guarantee that there is life on the other side of the impossible. And naming the time of death is an important process in moving on, letting go, and getting to the other side.
ref: 2015, Tracey Cleantis, The Next Happy: Let Go of the Life You Planned and Find a New Way Forward:
topics: heading
glosses: To declare, or declare in favor of, a predicted or actual result.
To formally recognise a death: especially to announce and record the time, place and fact of a person’s death.
examples: text: After the third massive failure, John called the whole initiative.
topics: heading
glosses: To declare, or declare in favor of, a predicted or actual result.
To declare (an effort or project) to be a failure.
examples: text: The goal was called offside.
topics: heading
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To declare, or declare in favor of, a predicted or actual result.
To make a decision as a referee or umpire.
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
heading
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: Direct or indirect use of the voice.
(of a batsman): To shout directions to the other batsman on whether or not they should take a run.
topics: ball-games
baseball
cricket
games
heading
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: Direct or indirect use of the voice.
(of a fielder): To shout to other fielders that he intends to take a catch (thus avoiding collisions).
examples: text: Every shot must be called.
topics: ball-games
billiards
games
heading
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: Direct or indirect use of the voice.
To tell in advance which shot one is attempting.
synonyms: word: name
word: nominate
word: call
word: call out
word: clarify
word: clear up
word: explicitize
word: get something straight
word: name
word: narrow down
word: nominate
word: particularize
word: singularize
word: specialize
word: specificate
examples: text: I bet $800 and Jane raised to $1600. My options: call (match her $1600 bet), reraise, or fold.
topics: card-games
heading
hobbies
lifestyle
poker
sports
glosses: Direct or indirect use of the voice.
To equal the same amount that other players are currently betting.
examples: text: I’ll call your 300, and raise to 600!
topics: card-games
heading
hobbies
lifestyle
poker
sports
glosses: Direct or indirect use of the voice.
To match the current bet amount, in preparation for a raise in the same turn. (Usually, players are forbidden to announce one's play this way.)
examples: text: My partner called two spades.
topics: heading
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: Direct or indirect use of the voice.
To state, or invoke a rule, in many games such as bridge, craps, jacks, and so on.
examples: text: He felt called to help the old man.
glosses: To require, demand.
raw_tags: with for
examples: text: Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations.
ref: 1910, Emerson Hough, “The Gateway, and Some Who Passed”, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 29:
text: The basis for his conclusion was called into doubt
glosses: To cause to be verbally subjected to.
raw_tags: with into
examples: text: I call the comfy chair!
text: Mr. Burns: Any of these islands would make a fine new country. / Homer: I call president! / Mr. Burns: Vice president! / Smithers: [groans]
ref: 1998, “The Trouble with Trillions”, in The Simpsons, season 9:
glosses: To lay claim to an object or role which is up for grabs.
topics: business
finance
glosses: To announce the early extinction of a debt by prepayment, usually at a premium.
topics: banking
business
glosses: To demand repayment of a loan.
examples: text: A recursive function is one that calls itself.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To jump to (another part of a program); to perform some operation, returning to the original point on completion.
Derived terms: becall
butter my butt and call it a biscuit
butter my butt and call me a biscuit
callability
callable
call a cab
call after
call again
call a go
call a halt
call ahead
call a lid
call an ambulance
call an audible
call and collect
call around
call a shovel a shovel
call a spade a shovel
call a spade a spade
call a spade a spade and a shovel a shovel
call away
call back
call balls and strikes
call bullshit
call by
call-by-future
call-by-name
call-by-need
call-by-reference
call down
callee
call 'em as one sees 'em
caller
call for
call forth
call in
calling
calling bell
calling-card
calling card
calling crab
calling name
calling station
call in sick
call in the wilderness
call into doubt
call into question
call it
call it a day
call it an early night
call it a night
call it as one sees it
call it even
call it half a day
call it quits
call it square
call it stumps
call names
call of duty
call off
call on
call on the carpet
call onto the carpet
call out
call out of one's name
call out sick
call over
call roll
call round
call someone every name in the book
call someone everything but a child of God
call someone's bluff
call someone's number
call the ball
call the fire department
call them as one sees them
call the police
call the question
call the shots
call the tune
call time
call to
call to account
call together
call to mind
call to order
call to task
call to the bar
call to the Bar
call up
call upon
cat calling the kettle black
check-call
cold calling
cold-calling
come calling
cop-call
desperate times call for desperate measures
don't call us, we'll call you
drop call
duty calls
effectual calling
I'll call the police
is that what the kids are calling it these days
I've never heard it called that before
miscall
name-calling
now that's what I call
overcall
photo call
point and call
pot calling the kettle black
re-call
recall
slap my ass and call me Judy
slap my ass and call me Sally
smooth call
that's what I call
too close to call
voice calling in the wilderness
whatchacallit
what-d'ye-call-'em
what-d'ye-call-it
who's calling
will call
withcall
you call this