call

• He heard a call from the other side of the room.

• That sound is the distinctive call of the cuckoo bird.

• I had to yield to the call of the wild.
• Dependance is a perpetual call upon humanity, and a greater incitement to tenderness and pity, than any other motive whatsoever. - 1711 October 7 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.],...
• But they had hoped that, when peace had been restored, when no call of duty required him [William III of England] to cross the sea, he would generally, during the summer and autumn, reside in his fair palaces and parks...

• I received several phone calls today.
• I received several calls today.

• I made a call to Jim, but he didn’t answer.

• I paid a call to a dear friend of mine.
• He [...] ſeldom waits, / Dependent on the baker's punctual call, / To hear his creaking panniers at the door, / Angry and ſad and his laſt cruſt conſumed. - 1785, William Cowper, “Book I. The Sofa.”, in The Task, a...
• Podson stayed till after five, though he handsomely apologized for outstaying a call. "The fact is, I never think of the time, when I get talking to a really intelligent woman...' - 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent,...

• The ship made a call at Southampton.

• That was a good call.
• Fair call actually, because don't the girls blow up when you miss an anniversary? - 1995, Paul Vautin, Turn It Up!, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, page 2:

• The Prime Minister has the call.
• I give the call to the Manager of Opposition Business.

• That person is hurt; call for help!
• 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. - 1684, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress. From This World to That...

1. (intransitive) To request, summon, or beckon.

2. (intransitive) To cry or shout.

   • "Supper's ready," called Dad from the kitchen.
   • If you heare a child crie in the night you must call to the nurſe and bid her ſtil it. - 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes]...
   • 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! - 1902, Rudyard Kipling, “How the Alphabet was Made”, in Just So Stories: For Little...

   Synonyms: holler yell call cry halloo roar roop scream shout

3. (transitive) To utter in a loud or distinct voice.

   • to call the roll of a military company
   • 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. - 1714, J[ohn] Gay, “Saturday; or,...

4. (ambitransitive) To contact by telephone.

   • Why don’t you call me in the morning?
   • Why don’t you call tomorrow?
   • There they waited until after eleven, then Paulvitch took down the receiver of their telephone. He called a number. - 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 41:

   Synonyms: drop a line ring get on the horn give someone a ring give someone a bell telephone call call up dial up give someone a buzz give someone a call give someone a jingle give someone a tinkle phone ring up

5. (transitive) To rouse from sleep; to awaken.

   • 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. - 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie...

   Synonyms: wake up arouse awake awaken bring round cry knock up rouse roust uprouse wake waken

6. (transitive, jazz) To request that one's band play (a particular tune).

   • They called I Got Rhythm, and turned to me again for a solo, and I said what? - 1997, Saxophone Journal:
   • Jeff Castleman and Rufus Jones were in position when they went out, and he immediately called Satin Doll. - 2002, Ken Vail, Duke's Diary:
   • I thought he forgot all about it, but late in the set he called St. Louis Blues. - 2015, Clyde E. B. Bernhardt, I Remember: Eighty Years of Black Entertainment, Big Bands, and the Blues, University of Pennsylvania...

7. (Yorkshire, transitive) To scold.

   • CALL 1 scold - 1865, William Stott Banks, Wakefield Words, page 11:

• We could always call on a friend.
• The engineer called round whilst you were away.
• [...] 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. - a. 1700 (date written), William Temple, “Of Health and Long-life”, in Miscellanea. The Third...

1. To pay a (social) visit (often used with "on", "round", or "at"; used by salespeople with "again" to invite customers to come again).

2. To stop at a station or port.

   • This train calls at Reading, Slough and London Paddington.
   • Our cruise ship called at Bristol Harbour.

3. To come to pass; to afflict.

   • They say your love will surely fade, girl, / When things go wrong and trouble calls. - 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...

• Why don’t we dispense with the formalities? Please call me Al.
• Don't call me a liar.
• 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,...

Synonyms: designate dub name bename call clepe denominate entitle nominate style term

1. (ditransitive) To name or refer to.

2. (passive voice) Of a person, to have as one's name; of a thing, to have as its name.

   • I’m called John.
   • A very tall building is called a skyscraper.
   • 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...

3. To state, or estimate, approximately or loosely; to characterize without strict regard to fact.

   • They call the distance ten miles.
   • That’s enough work. Let's call it a day and go home.
   • The whole army is called 700,000 men - 1842, Henry Brougham, Political Philosophy:

4. (transitive) To claim the existence of some malfeasance; to denounce as.

   • I call bullshit.
   • She called foul on their scheme.
   • Having been around the block a few times, I immediately called "shenanigans” on it, but even so, I was taken aback. - 2008, PC Magazine:

5. (obsolete) To disclose the class or character of; to identify.

   • This ſpeech calls him Spaniard, being nothing but / A large inventory of his own commendations. - c. 1608–1610, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “Philaster: Or, Love Lies a Bleeding”, in Fifty Comedies and Tragedies....

• The captains call the coin toss.

1. (transitive) To declare in advance.

2. (transitive) To predict.

   • He called twelve of the last three recessions.

   Synonyms: augur foretell anticipate bode call divine forecast foredeem forehold foresee foreshadow predict presage prognosticate prophesy

3. (transitive) To formally recognise a death: especially to announce and record the time, place and fact of a person’s death.

   • “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. - 1997, Joanni Nelson Horchler, Robin Rice Morris, The...
   • 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...
   • 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...

4. To declare (an effort or project) to be a failure.

   • After the third massive failure, John called the whole initiative.

5. (sports) To make a decision as a referee or umpire.

   • The goal was called offside.

1. (cricket) (of a batsman): To shout directions to the other batsman on whether or not they should take a run.

2. (baseball, cricket) (of a fielder): To shout to other fielders that he intends to take a catch (thus avoiding collisions).

3. (billiards) To tell in advance which shot one is attempting.

   • Every shot must be called.

   Synonyms: name nominate call call out clarify clear up explicitize get something straight narrow down particularize singularize specialize specificate

4. (intransitive, poker) To equal the same amount that other players are currently betting.

   • I bet $800 and Jane raised to $1600. My options: call (match her $1600 bet), reraise, or fold.

5. (intransitive, poker, proscribed) 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.)

   • I’ll call your 300, and raise to 600!

6. (transitive) To state, or invoke a rule, in many games such as bridge, craps, jacks, and so on.

   • My partner called two spades.

• He felt called to help the old man.

• 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...
• The basis for his conclusion was called into doubt

• I call the comfy chair!
• Mr. Burns: Any of these islands would make a fine new country. / Homer: I call president! / Mr. Burns: Vice president! / Smithers: [groans] - 1998, “The Trouble with Trillions”, in The Simpsons, season 9:

• A recursive function is one that calls itself.