call

Inherited from Latin callis (“alley, narrow street, passageway”). Compare Spanish calle (“street”).


call

Borrowed from Hebrew קָהָל (qahál, “assembly, synagogue”).


call

(chiefly Hong Kong Cantonese) radio call; phone call (Classifier: 個／个 c)

(Hong Kong Cantonese) summoning of people


call

to call a vehicle, especially a taxi or a van

call車

call车

(chiefly Hong Kong Cantonese) to call (with mobile phones, pagers, beepers, etc.)


call

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 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:

(heading) To reach out with one's voice.

(intransitive) To request, summon, or beckon.

To reach out with one's voice.
To request, summon, or beckon.

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 Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:

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 Children, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, stanza 5, page 169:

To reach out with one's voice.
To cry or shout.

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, The Flights”, in The Shepherd’s Week. In Six Pastorals, London: […] R. Burleigh […], →OCLC, page 56, lines 47–50:

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

To reach out with one's voice.
To utter in a loud or distinct voice.

Why don’t you call me in the morning?

Why don’t you call tomorrow?

(ambitransitive) To contact by telephone.

To reach out with one's voice.
To contact by telephone.

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 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:

(transitive) To rouse from sleep; to awaken.

To reach out with one's voice.
To rouse from sleep; to awaken.

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.

2015, Clyde E. B. Bernhardt, I Remember: Eighty Years of Black Entertainment, Big Bands, and the Blues, University of Pennsylvania Press, →ISBN, page 98:

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

To request that one's band play (a particular tune).

CALL 1 scold

1865, William Stott Banks, Wakefield Words, page 11:

To reach out with one's voice.
To scold.

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 Part. […], London: […] Jonathan Swift, […] Benjamin Tooke, […], published 1701, →OCLC, page 127:

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.

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:

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

This train calls at Reading, Slough and London Paddington.

Our cruise ship called at Bristol Harbour.

(heading, intransitive) To visit.
To stop at a station or port.

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

1968 December 8, Henry Cosby, Sylvia Moy, Stevie Wonder (lyrics and music), “I’d Be a Fool Right Now”, in For Once in My Life, performed by Stevie Wonder:

(heading, intransitive) To visit.
To come to pass; to afflict.

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.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

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.

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:

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.

2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:

(heading) To name, identify, or describe.

To name, identify, or describe.
To name or refer to.

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.

2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:

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

Of a person, to have as one's name; of a thing, to have as its name.

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:

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

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.

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

To claim the existence of some malfeasance; to denounce as.

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. […], [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:

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

To disclose the class or character of; to identify.

The captains call the coin toss.

(heading) To declare, or declare in favor of, a predicted or actual result.

To declare, or declare in favor of, a predicted or actual result.

He called twelve of the last three recessions.

“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 SIDS Survival Guide: Information and Comfort for Grieving Family and Friends and Professionals who Seek to Help Them, page 33:

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.

2012, Marcy O. Diehl, Medical Transcription: Techniques and Procedures (Seventh Edition), page 127:

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.

2015, Tracey Cleantis, The Next Happy: Let Go of the Life You Planned and Find a New Way Forward:

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

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

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

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

The goal was called offside.

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

To make a decision as a referee or umpire.

(heading, sports) Direct or indirect use of the voice.

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

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

Every shot must be called.

(cue sports) To tell in advance which shot one is attempting.

To tell in advance which shot one is attempting.

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

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

To equal the same amount that other players are currently betting.

I’ll call your 300, and raise to 600!

(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.)

My partner called two spades.

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

He felt called to help the old man.

(transitive, sometimes with for) To require, demand.

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.

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:

The basis for his conclusion was called into doubt

(transitive, with into) To cause to be verbally subjected to.

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:

(transitive, colloquial) To lay claim to an object or role which is up for grabs.

To lay claim to an object or role which is up for grabs.

(transitive, finance) To announce the early extinction of a debt by prepayment, usually at a premium.

To announce the early extinction of a debt by prepayment, usually at a premium.

(transitive, banking) To demand repayment of a loan.

A recursive function is one that calls itself.

(transitive, computing) To jump to (another part of a program); to perform some operation, returning to the original point on completion.

en-verb

call (third-person singular simple present calls, present participle calling, simple past and past participle called or (archaic) call'd)

calls (present singular third-person)
calling (participle present)
called (participle past)
called (past)
call'd (archaic participle past)
call'd (archaic past)
call (infinitive)

call a spade a spade and a shovel a shovel

call someone everything but a child of God

desperate times call for desperate measures

is that what the kids are calling it these days

→ Kashubian: kolowac (United States)

anläuten

Germany regional (esp. southern Germany), Austria regional (esp. western Austria: Vorarlberg), otherwise dialectal or dated; Switzerland; South Tyrol dialectal; South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal)

pitar

sports: to make a decision as a referee or umpire

huutaa merkki

to shout directions to the other batsman on whether or not they should take a run

näyttää merkkiä (in pesäpallo with visual cues)

cridar

to shout to other fielders that he intends to take a catch thus avoiding collisions

meegaan

to match or equal the amount of poker chips in the pot as the player that bet

анонси́рам

to state, or invoke a rule, in many games such as bridge, craps, jacks, and so on

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”).

der

Old Norse kalla (“to call; shout; refer to as; name”)

inh

Proto-Germanic *kalzōną (“to call, shout”)

der

Proto-Indo-European *golH-so- (“voice, cry”)

cog

Swedish kalla (“to call, refer to, beckon”)

Icelandic kalla (“to call, shout, name”)


call

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

That sound is the distinctive call of the cuckoo bird.

The characteristic cry of a bird or other animal.

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 8 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “THURSDAY, September 27, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 181; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 440:

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, [...]

1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XXIII, in Lady Trevelyan (Hannah More Macaulay), editor, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume V, London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, →OCLC, page 117:

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

I received several phone calls today.

I received several calls today.

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

An instance of calling someone on the telephone.

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 Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, pages 13–14:

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, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 149:

A short visit, usually for social purposes.

The ship made a call at Southampton.

(nautical) A visit by a ship or boat to a port.

That was a good call.

The Prime Minister has the call.

I give the call to the Manager of Opposition Business.

The right to speak at a given time during a debate or other public event; the floor.

(cricket) The act of calling to the other batsman.

The act of calling to the other batsman.

(cricket) The state of being the batsman whose role it is to call (depends on where the ball goes.)

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.”

1978, Alan E. Nourse, The Practice, Harper & Row, →ISBN:

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.

2007, William D. Bailey, You Will Never Run out of Jesus, CrossHouse Publishing,, →ISBN, page 29:

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.

2008, Jamal M. Bullocks et al., Plastic Surgery Emergencies: Principles and Techniques, Thieme, →ISBN, page ix:

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.

2009, Steven Louis Shelley, A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting, page 171:

(uncountable) A work shift which requires one to be available when requested, i.e. on call.

(computing) The act of jumping to a subprogram, saving the means to return to the original point.

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

A statement of a particular state, or rule, made in many games such as bridge, craps, jacks, and so on.

(poker) The act of matching a bet made by a player who has previously bet in the same round of betting.

A note blown on the horn to encourage the dogs in a hunt.

(nautical) A whistle or pipe, used by the boatswain and his mate to summon the sailors to duty.

A pipe or other instrument to call birds or animals by imitating their note or cry. A game call.

An invitation to take charge of or serve a church as its pastor.

(archaic) Vocation; employment; calling.

(US, law) A reference to, or statement of, an object, course, distance, or other matter of description in a survey or grant requiring or calling for a corresponding object, etc., on the land.

"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.

2015 March 3, Lyda Longa, “Internet hookups mean fewer prostitutes on Daytona’s streets, police say”, in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, Daytona Beach, Fla.:

(informal, slang, prostitution) A meeting with a client for paid sex; hookup; job.

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

2020 October 28, Master K.E. Jolley, “Korlyakov v. Riesz, 2020 ONSC 6622”, in CanLII, retrieved 2021-06-19:

(law) A lawyer who was called to the bar (became licensed as a lawyer) in a specified year.

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

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

1865, William Stott Banks, Wakefield Words, page 11:

(in negative constructions) Need; necessity.

en-noun

call (countable and uncountable, plural calls)

the call is coming from inside the house

→ Armenian: քոլ (kʻol)

→ Georgian: ქოლი (koli)

käynti

nautical: visit by a ship or boat to a port

認購期權 /认购期权

finance: short for option to buy stock — see also call option

nákupní opce (právo nakoupit akcii za uvedenou cenu)

crida

computing: act of jumping to a subprogram

tarjous

statement of a particular state or rule in many games

puosunpilli

nautical: whistle or pipe used to summon the sailors to duty


call

call (genitive singular)
call (indefinite nominative singular)
a chall (indefinite singular vocative)
call (genitive indefinite singular)
call (dative indefinite singular)
an call (definite nominative singular)
an chall (definite genitive singular)
leis an gcall (dative definite singular)
don chall (dative definite singular)
cál (alternative)


call

caill (genitive singular)
call (indefinite nominative singular)
a chaill (indefinite singular vocative)
caill (genitive indefinite singular)
call (dative indefinite singular)
an call (definite nominative singular)
an chaill (definite genitive singular)
leis an gcall (dative definite singular)
don chall (dative definite singular)
call
chall
gcall


call

Vamos fazer call mais tarde?

(Internet slang) a call (audio or video conversation)


call

head

call m (genitive singular calla, plural callaidhean)

calla (genitive singular)
callaidhean (plural)
call
chall


call

cy-adj

call (feminine singular call, plural call, equative called, comparative callach, superlative callaf)

call (feminine singular)
call (plural)
called (equative)
callach (comparative)
callaf (superlative)
call
gall (soft)
nghall
chall

Possible borrowing from Latin callidus (“wise, clever; cunning”) (and if so, doublet of caled (“hard”)).