call

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   in sports, the decision made by an umpire or referee

   They were ejected for protesting the call.

2. 2
   noun

   a visit in an official or professional capacity

   The pastor's calls on their parishioners were appreciated.

3. 3
   noun

   a brief social visit

   senior professors' wives no longer make afternoon calls on newcomers

4. 4
   noun

   a telephone connection

   They reported several anonymous calls.

5. 5
   noun

   an instruction that interrupts the program being executed

   Pascal performs calls by simply giving the name of the routine to be executed

6. 6
   noun

   a request

   many calls for Christmas stories

7. 7
   noun

   a demand for a show of hands in a card game

   after two raises there was a call

8. 8
   verb

   to rouse somebody from sleep with a call

   I was called at 5 A.M. this morning

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 Low German kallen (“to speak, 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”)…