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Webster 1913 Edition

Call

Call

(ka̤l)
,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Called
(ka̤ld)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Calling
]
[OE.
callen
, AS.
ceallian
; akin to Icel. & Sw.
kalla
, Dan.
kalde
, D.
kallen
to talk, prate, OHG.
kallōn
to call; cf. Gr.
γηρύειν
to speak, sing, Skr.
gar
to praise. Cf.
Garrulous
.]
1.
To command or request to come or be present; to summon;
as, to
call
a servant
.
Call
hither Clifford; bid him come amain
Shakespeare
2.
To summon to the discharge of a particular duty; to designate for an office, or employment, especially of a religious character; – often used of a divine summons;
as, to be
called
to the ministry
; sometimes, to invite;
as, to
call
a minister to be the pastor of a church
.
Paul . . .
called
to be an apostle
Rom. i. 1.
The Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have
called
them.
Acts xiii. 2.
3.
To invite or command to meet; to convoke; – often with together;
as, the President
called
Congress together
; to appoint and summon;
as, to
call
a meeting of the Board of Aldermen
.
Now
call
we our high court of Parliament.
Shakespeare
4.
To give name to; to name; to address, or speak of, by a specifed name.
If you would but
call
me Rosalind.
Shakespeare
And God
called
the light Day, and the darkness he
called
Night.
Gen. i. 5.
5.
To regard or characterize as of a certain kind; to denominate; to designate.
What God hath cleansed, that
call
not thou common.
Acts x. 15.
6.
To state, or estimate, approximately or loosely; to characterize without strict regard to fact;
as, they
call
the distance ten miles; he
called
it a full day’s work
.
[The] army is
called
seven hundred thousand men.
Brougham.
7.
To show or disclose the class, character, or nationality of.
[Obs.]
This speech
calls
him Spaniard.
Beau. & Fl.
8.
To utter in a loud or distinct voice; – often with off;
as, to
call
, or
call off
, the items of an account; to
call
the roll of a military company
.
No parish clerk who
calls
the psalm so clear.
Gay.
9.
To invoke; to appeal to.
I
call
God for a witness.
2 Cor. i. 23 [Rev. Ver. ]
10.
To rouse from sleep; to awaken.
If thou canst awake by four o' the clock.
I prithee
call
me. Sleep hath seized me wholly.
Shakespeare
Syn. – To name; denominate; invite; bid; summon; convoke; assemble; collect; exhort; warn; proclaim; invoke; appeal to; designate.
–
To Call
,
Convoke
,
Summon
. Call is the generic term; as, to call a public meeting. To convoke is to require the assembling of some organized body of men by an act of authority; as, the king convoked Parliament. To summon is to require attendance by an act more or less stringent anthority; as, to summon a witness.

Call

,
Verb.
I.
1.
To speak in loud voice; to cry out; to address by name; – sometimes with to.
You must
call
to the nurse.
Shakespeare
The angel of God
called
to Hagar.
Gen. xxi. 17.
2.
To make a demand, requirement, or request.
They
called
for rooms, and he showed them one.
Bunyan.
3.
To make a brief visit; also, to stop at some place designated, as for orders.
He ordered her to
call
at the house once a week.
Temple.
To call for
(a)
To demand; to require;
as, a crime
calls for
punishment; a survey, grant, or deed
calls for
the metes and bounds, or the quantity of land, etc., which it describes
.
(b)
To give an order for; to request.
“Whenever the coach stopped, the sailor called for more ale.”
Marryat.
–
To call on
,
To call upon
,
(a)
To make a short visit to;
as,
call on
a friend
.
(b)
To appeal to; to invite; to request earnestly;
as,
to call upon
a person to make a speech
.
(c)
To solicit payment, or make a demand, of a debt.
(d)
To invoke or play to; to worship;
as,
to call upon
God
.
–
To call out
To call or utter loudly; to brawl.

Call

,
Noun.
1.
The act of calling; – usually with the voice, but often otherwise, as by signs, the sound of some instrument, or by writing; a summons; an entreaty; an invitation;
as, a
call
for help; the bugle's
call
.
“Call of the trumpet.”
Shak.
I rose as at thy
call
, but found thee not.
Milton.
2.
A signal, as on a drum, bugle, trumpet, or pipe, to summon soldiers or sailors to duty.
3.
(Eccl.)
An invitation to take charge of or serve a church as its pastor.
4.
A requirement or appeal arising from the circumstances of the case; a moral requirement or appeal.
Dependence is a perpetual
call
upon humanity.
Addison.
Running into danger without any
call
of duty.
Macaulay.
5.
A divine vocation or summons.
St. Paul himself believed he did well, and that he had a
call
to it, when he persecuted the Christians.
Locke.
6.
Vocation; employment.
[In this sense, calling is generally used.]
7.
A short visit;
as, to make a
call
on a neighbor
; also, the daily coming of a tradesman to solicit orders.
The baker's punctual
call
.
Cowper.
8.
(Hunting)
A note blown on the horn to encourage the hounds.
9.
(Naut.)
A whistle or pipe, used by the boatswain and his mate, to summon the sailors to duty.
10.
(Fowling)
The cry of a bird; also a noise or cry in imitation of a bird; or a pipe to call birds by imitating their note or cry.
11.
(Amer. Land 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.
12.
The privilege to demand the delivery of stock, grain, or any commodity, at a fixed, price, at or within a certain time agreed on.
[Brokers' Cant]
13.
See
Assessment
, 4.
At call
, or
On call
,
liable to be demanded at any moment without previous notice; as money on deposit.
–
Call bird
,
a bird taught to allure others into a snare.
–
Call boy
(a)
A boy who calls the actors in a theater; a boy who transmits the orders of the captain of a vessel to the engineer, helmsman, etc.
(b)
A waiting boy who answers a cal, or cames at the ringing of a bell; a bell boy.
–
Call note
,
the note naturally used by the male bird to call the female. It is artificially applied by birdcatchers as a decoy.
Latham.
–
Call of the house
(Legislative Bodies)
,
a calling over the names of members, to discover who is absent, or for other purposes; a calling of names with a view to obtaining the ayes and noes from the persons named.
–
Call to the bar
,
admission to practice in the courts.

Webster 1828 Edition

Call

CALL

,
Verb.
T.
[Heb. To hold or restrain.] In a general sense, to drive; to strain or force out sound. Hence,
1.
To name; to denominate or give a name. And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. Gen. 1.
2.
To convoke; to summon; to direct or order to meet; to assemble by order or public notice; often with together; as, the king called his council together; the president called together the congress.
3.
To request to meet or come.
He sent his servants to call them that were bidden. Math. 22.
4.
To invite.
Because I have called and ye refused. Prov. 1.
5.
To invite or summon to come or be present; to invite, or collect.
Call all your senses to you.
6.
To give notice to come by authority; to command to come; as, call a servant.
7.
To proclaim; to name, or publish the name.
Nor parish clerk, who calls the psalm so clear.
8.
To appoint or designate, as for an office, duty or employment.
See, I have called by name Bezaleel. Ex. 31.
Paul called to be an apostle. Rom. 1.
9.
To invite; to warn; to exhort. Is. 22:12.
10.
To invite or draw into union with Christ; to bring to know, believe and obey the gospel. Rev. 8:28
11.
To own and acknowledge. Heb. 2:11.
12.
To invoke or appeal to.
I call God for a record. 2 Cor. 1.
13.
To esteem or account. Is. 47:5. Mat. 3:15.
To call down, to invite, or to bring down.
To call back, to revoke, or retract; to recall; to summon or bring back.
To call for, to demand, require or claim, as a crime calls for punishment; or to cause to grow. Ezek. 36. Also, to speak for; to ask; to request; as, to call for a dinner.
To call in, to collect, as to call in debts or money; or to draw from circulation, as to call in clipped coin; or to summon together; to invite to come together; as, to call in neighbors or friends.
To call forth, to bring or summon to action; as, to call forth all the faculties of the mind.
To call off, to summon away; to divert; as, to call off the attention; to call off workmen from their employment.
To call up, to bring into view or recollection; as, to call u the image of a deceased friend; also, to bring into action, or discussion; as, to call up a bill before a legislative body.
To call over, to read a list, name by name; to recite separate particulars in order, as a roll of names.
To call out, to summon to fight; to challenge; also, to summon into service; as, to call out the militia.
To call to mind, to recollect; to revive in memory.

CALL

,
Verb.
I.
1.
To utter a loud sound, or to address by name; to utter the name; sometimes with to.
The angel of God called to Hagar. Gen. 21.
2.
To stop, without intention of staying; to make a short stop; as, to call at the inn. This use Johnson supposes to have originated in the custom of denoting ones presence at the door by a call. It is common, in this phrase, to use at, as to call at the inn; or on, as to call on a friend. This application seems to be equivalent to speak, D. Kallen. Let us speak at this place.
To call on, to make a short visit to; also, to solicit payment, or make a demand of a debt. In a theological sense, to pray to or worship; as, to call on the name of the Lord. Gen. 4. To repeat solemnly.
To call out, to utter a loud voice; to bawl; a popular use of the phrase.

CALL

,
Noun.
1.
A vocal address, of summons or invitation; as, he will not come at a call.
2.
Demand; requisition; public claim; as, listen to the calls of justice or humanity.
3.
Divine vocation, or summons; as the call of Abraham.
4.
Invitation; request of a public body or society; as, a clergyman has a call to settle in the ministry.
5.
A summons from heaven; impulse.
St. Paul believed he had a call, when he persecuted the Christians.
6.
Authority; command.
7.
A short visit; as, to make a call; to give one a call that is, a speaking to; D. Kallen. To give one a call, is to stop a moment and speak or say a word; or to have a short conversation with.
8.
Vocation; employment. In this sense calling is generally used.
9.
A naming; a nomination.
10.
Among hunters, a lesson blown on the horn, to comfort the hounds.
11.
Among seamen, a whistle or pipe, used by the boatswain and his mate, to summon the sailors to their duty.
12.
The English name of the mineral called by the Germans tungsten or wolfram.
13.
Among fowlers, the noise or cry of a fowl, or a pipe to call birds by imitating their voice.
14.
In legislative bodies, the call of the house, is a calling over the names of the members, to discover who is absent or for other purpose; a calling of names with a view to obtain answers from the person named.

Definition 2024

Call

Call

See also: call and CALL

English

Proper noun

Call

  1. A surname​.

call

call

See also: Call and CALL

English

Woman making a telephone call (1964).
Call of the osprey (bird).

Noun

call ‎(plural calls)

  1. A telephone conversation.
    I received several phone calls today.
    I received several calls today.
  2. A short visit, usually for social purposes.
    I paid a call to a dear friend of mine.
    • Cowper
      the baker's punctual call
  3. A cry or shout.
    He heard a call from the other side of the room.
  4. A decision or judgement.
    That was a good call.
  5. The characteristic cry of a bird or other animal.
    That sound is the distinctive call of the cuckoo bird.
  6. A beckoning or summoning.
    I had to yield to the call of the wild.
    • Addison
      Dependence is a perpetual call upon humanity.
    • Macaulay
      running into danger without any call of duty
  7. (finance) An option to buy stock at a specified price during or at a specified time.
  8. (cricket) The act of calling to the other batsman.
  9. (cricket) The state of being the batsman whose role it is to call (depends on where the ball goes.)
  10. A work shift which requires one to be available when requested (see on call).
    • 1978, Alan E. Nourse, The Practice, Harper & Row, ISBN 9780060131944:
      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.”
    • 2007, William D. Bailey, You Will Never Run Out of Jesus, CrossHouse Publishing, ISBN 978-0-929292-24-3:
      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.
    • 2008, Jamal M. Bullocks et al., Plastic Surgery Emergencies: Principles and Techniques, Thieme, ISBN 978-1-58890-670-0, page ix:
      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.
    • 2009, Steven Louis Shelley, A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting, page 171:
      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.
  11. (computing) The act of jumping to a subprogram, saving the means to return to the original point.
  12. A statement of a particular state, or rule, made in many games such as bridge, craps, jacks, and so on.
    There was a 20 dollar bet on the table, and my call was 9.
  13. (poker) The act of matching a bet made by a player who has previously bet in the same round of betting.
  14. A note blown on the horn to encourage the dogs in a hunt.
  15. (nautical) A whistle or pipe, used by the boatswain and his mate to summon the sailors to duty.
  16. A pipe to call birds by imitating their note or cry.
  17. An invitation to take charge of or serve a church as its pastor.
  18. (archaic) Vocation; employment; calling.
  19. (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.

Quotations

  • 2007, Latina, volume 11, page 101:
    We actually have a call tomorrow, which is a Sunday, right after my bridal shower. I have to make enchiladas for 10 people!

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

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

  1. (heading) To use one's voice.
    1. (intransitive) To request, summon, or beckon.
      That person is hurt; call for help!‎
      • John Bunyan (1628-1688)
        They called for rooms, and he showed them one.
    2. (intransitive) To cry or shout.
      • William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
        You must call to the nurse.
      • Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), Merrow Down
        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!
    3. (transitive) To utter in a loud or distinct voice.
      to call the roll of a military company‎
      • John Gay (1685-1732)
        no parish clerk who calls the psalm so clear
    4. (transitive, intransitive) To contact by telephone.
      Why don't you call me in the morning?  Why don't you call tomorrow?‎
    5. (transitive) To declare in advance.
      The captains call the coin toss.‎
    6. To rouse from sleep; to awaken.
      • William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
        If thou canst awake by four o' the clock, / I prithee call me. Sleep hath seized me wholly.
    7. To declare (an effort or project) to be a failure.
      After the third massive failure, John called the whole initiative.‎
  2. (heading, intransitive) To visit.
    1. To pay a (social) visit.
      We could always call on a friend.  The engineer called round whilst you were away.‎
      • William Temple (1628–1699)
        He ordered her to call at the house once a week.
      • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:
        The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on an afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.
    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. (heading) To name, identify or describe.
    1. (transitive) To name or refer to.
      Why don't we dispense with the formalities. Please call me Al.‎
      • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 7, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
        “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. […]”
      • 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Avery Hopwood, The Bat, chapterI:
        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.
      • 2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:
        Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […].  Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. […] 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.
    2. (in passive) 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.‎
      • 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist:
        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.
    3. (transitive) To predict.
      He called twelve of the last three recessions.‎
    4. 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.‎
      • John Brougham (1814-1880)
        [The] army is called seven hundred thousand men.
    5. (obsolete) To disclose the class or character of; to identify.
  4. (heading, sports) Direct or indirect use of the voice.
    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. (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.
    4. (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!
    5. (transitive) To state, or invoke a rule, in many games such as bridge, craps, jacks, and so on.
      My partner called two spades.‎
  5. (transitive, sometimes with for) To require, demand.
    He felt called to help the old man.‎
    • 1915, Emerson Hough, The Purchase Price, chapterII:
      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.
  6. (transitive, finance) To announce the early extinction of a debt by prepayment, usually at a premium.
  7. (transitive, banking) To demand repayment of a loan.
  8. (transitive, computing) To jump to (another part of a program) to perform some operation, returning to the original point on completion.
    A recursive function is one that calls itself.‎

Synonyms

  • See also Wikisaurus:shout
  • See also Wikisaurus:telephone

Derived terms

Translations

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: United · free · return · #353: call · speak · land · why

Catalan

Pronunciation

  • (Balearic) IPA(key): /ˈkaʎ/
  • (Central) IPA(key): /ˈkaʎ/
  • (Valencian) IPA(key): /ˈkaʎ/

Etymology 1

From Latin callis ‎(“alley, narrow street, passageway”)

Noun

call m ‎(plural calls)

  1. passageway

Etymology 2

From Latin callum.

Noun

call m ‎(uncountable)

  1. corn

Etymology 3

From Hebrew קָהָל ‎(qahál, “assembly, synagogue”).

Noun

call m ‎(plural calls)

  1. Jewish quarter

Scottish Gaelic

Noun

call m ‎(genitive singular calla, plural callaidhean)

  1. verbal noun of caill
  2. loss
  3. waste

Derived terms

Etymology

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 *gal(o)s-, *glōs-, *golH-so- ‎(“voice, cry”). Cognate with Scots call, caw, ca ‎(“to call, cry, shout”), Dutch kallen ‎(“to chat, talk”), German dialectal kallen ‎(“to talk; talk loudly or too much”), Swedish kalla ‎(“to call, refer to, beckon”), Norwegian kalle ‎(“to call, name”), Icelandic kalla ‎(“to call, shout, name”), Latin glōria ‎(“fame, honour, glory”), Welsh galw ‎(“to call, demand”), Polish głos ‎(“voice”), Lithuanian gal̃sas ‎(“echo”), Russian голос ‎(gólos, “voice”). More at glory.

Pronunciation

Similar Results