Word definition: call

Etimology

From Middle English callen, from Old English ceallian (“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 *gelH-. Cognate with Scots call, caw, ca (“to call, cry, shout”), Dutch kallen (“to chat, talk”), obsolete 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”).

verb

Examples

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.

If you heare a child crie in the night you must call to the nurſe and bid her ſtil it.

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!

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.

Why don’t you call me in the morning?

Why don’t you call tomorrow?

The captains call the coin toss.

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.

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

They called I Got Rhythm, and turned to me again for a solo, and I said what?

Jeff Castleman and Rufus Jones were in position when they went out, and he immediately called Satin Doll.

I thought he forgot all about it, but late in the set he called St. Louis Blues.

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.

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.

This train calls at Reading, Slough and London Paddington.

Our cruise ship called at Bristol Harbour.

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

Why don’t we dispense with the formalities. Please call me Al.

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.

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.

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.

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 magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.

He called twelve of the last three recessions.

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

“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.

EXAMPLES: Time of death was called at 16:34. Time of death was called at 1634 p.m.. Time of death was called at 1634 hours. NOTE: Military 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.

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.

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.

This ſpeech calls him Spaniard, being nothing but / A large inventory of his own commendations.

I bet $800 and Jane raised to $1600. My options: call , reraise or fold.

I’ll call your 300, and raise to 600!

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 their own relations.

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]

A recursive function is one that calls itself.

CALL 1 scold"

The goal was called offside.

Every shot must be called.

Related words

noun

Examples

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.

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...'

The ship made a call at Southampton.

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

That was a good call.

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.The spelling has been modernized.

The spelling has been modernized.

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 on the banks of the Thames, [...]

We actually have a call tomorrow, which is a Sunday, right after my bridal shower. I have to make enchiladas for 10 people!

The Prime Minister has the call.

I give the call to the Manager of Opposition Business.

page 48: “Mondays would be great, especially after a weekend of call.”page 56: “ […] I’ve got call tonight, and all weekend, but I’ll be off tomorrow to help you some.”

page 29: I took general-surgery call at Bossier Medical Center and asked special permission to take general-medical call, which was gladly given away by the older staff members: […] . You would be surprised at how many surgical cases came out of medical call.page 206: My first night of primary medical call was greeted about midnight with a very ill 30-year-old lady who had a temperature of 103 degrees.

page 206: My first night of primary medical call was greeted about midnight with a very ill 30-year-old lady who had a temperature of 103 degrees.

We attempted to include all topics that we ourselves have faced while taking plastic surgery call at the affiliated hospitals in the Texas Medical Center, one of the largest medical centers in the world, which sees over 100,000 patients per day.

The columns in the second rectangle show fewer hours, but part of that is due to the fact that there's a division between a work call and a show call.

There was a 20 dollar bet on the table, and my call was 9.

"They have a little network of women that watch out for each other," Morford said. That means that if one prostitute doesn't come back after going out on a call – whether it's an Internet prostitute or a streetwalker – and the other women can't get hold of her, they get scared, close up shop and won't work, Morford said.

The work was done by two lawyers, one a 1983 call and the other a 2010 call.

There's no call for that kind of bad language!

CALL 2 need for. "There worn't noa call for nowt o't'soart."

Related words