call

call a spade a spade to call something by

its right name; to speak frankly about

something, even if it is unpleasant.

Well, I believe it’s time to call a spade a

spade. We are just avoiding the issue.

Let’s call a spade a spade. The man is a

liar.

call for someone or something 1. to arrive to

collect or pick up a person or a thing.

(Used especially when you are to pick

someone up and are acting as an escort.)

I will call for you about eight this eve-

ning. The messenger will call for your

reply in the morning. 2. to need, require,

or demand something or the services of

someone. The recipe calls for two cups

of f lour. This job calls for someone with

good eyesight.

call it a day to quit work and go home; to

say that a day’s work has been completed.

I’m tired. Let’s call it a day. The boss

was mad because Tom called it a day at

noon and went home.

call it a night to end what one is doing at

night and go [home] to bed. At mid-

night, I called it a night and went to bed.

Guest after guest called it a night, and

at last we were alone.

call it quits to quit; to resign from some-

thing; to announce that one is quitting.

(Informal.) Okay! I’ve had enough! I’m

calling it quits. Time to go home, John.

Let’s call it quits.

call of nature the need to go to the lava-

tory. (Humorous.) Stop the car here! I

have to answer the call of nature. There

was no break in the agenda to take account

of the call of nature.

call out (to someone) to shout to someone.

Mike called out to Tom that there was

a telephone call for him. I heard some-

one call out, but I could see no one.

call someone down to reprimand a person;

to bawl someone out. The teacher had

to call Sally down in front of everybody.

“I wish you wouldn’t call me down in

public,” cried Sally.

call someone names to call a person un-

pleasant or insulting names. (Usually

viewed as a juvenile act.) Mommy! John

is calling me names again! We’ll never

get anywhere by calling one another

names.

call someone on the carpet to reprimand a

person. (The phrase presents images of

a person called into the boss’s carpeted

office for a reprimand.) One more error

like that and the boss will call you on the

carpet. I’m sorry it went wrong. I really

hope he doesn’t call me on the carpet again.

call someone or something in to call on the spe-

cial talents, abilities, or power of some-

one or something. They had to call a

new doctor in. T Yes, they had to call in a

specialist. T They had to call in a huge

tractor to move the boulder.

call someone or something into question to

cause someone or something to be eval-

uated; to examine or reexamine the

qualifications or value of someone or

something. Because of her poor record,

we were forced to call Dr. Jones into ques-

tion. We called Dr. Jones’s qualifications

into question.  They called the whole

project into question. T I cannot call into

question the entire medical profession.

call someone or something off 1. to call a halt

to an attack by someone or something.

Please call your dog off. It’s trying to bite

me! T Okay, you can call off the police. I

surrender. T It’s time to call off the man-

hunt. The criminal has given himself up.

2. [with something] to cancel an event.

It’s too late to call the party off. The first

guests have already arrived. T Because of

rain, they called off the baseball game.

call someone or something up 1. to call a per-

son, business, or office on the telephone.

Mary called the company up and or-

dered a new supply of medicine. T Tom

called up Mary. 2. [with something] to

summon information from a computer.

T John used a computer to call up the in-

formation. T With a few strokes on the

computer keyboard, Sally called up the fig-

ures she was looking for.

call someone’s bluff to demonstrate that a

person is or is not being deceptive, usu-

ally by demanding that the person prove

a claim or carry out a threat. All right,

I’ll call your bluff. Show me you can do it!

Tom said, “I’ve got a gun here in my

pocket, and I’ll shoot if you come any

closer!” “Go ahead,” said Bill, calling his

bluff.

call the dogs off to stop threatening, chas-

ing, or hounding (a person). (Also literal.

Informal. Note the variation in the ex-

amples.) All right, I surrender. You can

call your dogs off. T Tell the sheriff to call

off the dogs. We caught the robber. T

Please call off your dogs!

call the meeting to order to start a meet-

ing officially; to announce that the meet-

ing has started. The president called the

meeting to order shortly after noon. We

cannot do anything until someone calls the

meeting to order.

call (the) roll and take (the) roll to call

the names of people on the rolls, expect-

ing them to reply if they are present.

After I call the roll, please open your books

to page 12. I will take roll, and then we

will do arithmetic.

call the shots and call the tune to make

the decisions; to decide what is to be

done. (Informal.) Sally always wants to

call the shots, and Mary doesn’t like to be

bossed around. They don’t get along well.

Sally always wants to call the tune.

Look here, friend, I’m calling the shots. You

just be quiet.

call the tune Go to call the shots.

calm as a toad in the sun Go to (as) calm

as a toad in the sun.

the calm before the storm Go to the lull

before the storm.

can take it to the bank able to depend on

the truthfulness of my statement: it is not

counterfeit or bogus; to be able to bank

on something. Believe me. What I am

telling you is the truth. You can take it to

the bank. This information is as good as

gold. You can take it to the bank.

Can you imagine? Can you believe that?;

Imagine that! She wore jeans to the

dance. Can you imagine? Billy was eat-

ing the houseplant! Can you imagine?

cancel something out to destroy the effect of

something; to balance something. T This

last payment cancels out my debt. Yes,

your last payment cancels it out. T Bob’s

two good grades canceled out his two fail-

ing grades.

cannot help doing something not able to re-

frain from doing something; not able not

to do something. Anne is such a good

cook, I can’t help eating everything she

makes. Since John loves to shop, he can’t

help spending money.

cannot stomach someone or something Go to

not able to stomach someone or something.

[can’t] Go to the expressions listed at not

able, as well as those listed below.

can’t do anything with someone or something

not [to be] able to manage or control

someone or something. (Also with can-

not.) Bill is such a problem. I can’t do

anything with him. My hair is such a

mess. I just can’t do anything with it.

can’t help but do something [to be] unable

to choose any but one course of action.

(Also with cannot.) Her parents live

nearby, so she can’t help but go there on

holidays. Bob is a tennis fan and can’t

help but travel to Wimbledon each year.

can’t hold a candle to someone not [to be]

equal to someone; unable to measure up

to someone. (Also with cannot.) Mary

can’t hold a candle to Ann when it comes

to auto racing. As for singing, John can’t

hold a candle to Jane.

can’t make heads or tails (out) of some-

one or something [to be] unable to under-

stand someone or something. (Also with

cannot.) John is so strange. I can’t make

heads or tails of him.  Do this report

again. I can’t make heads or tails out of it.

can’t see beyond the end of one’s nose

[to be] unaware of the things that might

happen in the future; not farsighted; self-

centered. (Also with cannot.) John is

a very poor planner. He can’t see beyond

the end of his nose. Ann can’t see beyond

the end of her nose. She is very self-

centered.

can’t see one’s hand in front of one’s face

[to be] unable to see very far, usually due

to darkness or fog. (Also with cannot.)

It was so dark that I couldn’t see my hand

in front of my face. Bob said that the fog

was so thick he couldn’t see his hand in

front of his face.

can’t stomach someone or something Go to

can’t stand (the sight of) someone or some-

thing.

can’t wait (for something to happen) [to be

very eager and] to be unable to endure

the wait for something to happen. I am

so anxious for my birthday to come. I just

can’t wait. Tom can’t wait for Mary to

arrive.

can’t wait (to do something) [to be very ea-

ger and] unable to endure the wait until

it is possible to do something. I’m glad

it’s almost summertime—I just can’t wait

to go swimming! Jimmy can’t wait to go

to school tomorrow.

cap and gown the academic cap or mor-

tarboard and the robe worn in academic

ceremonies. We all had to rent cap and

gown for graduation. I appeared wear-

ing my cap and gown, but I had shorts on

underneath because it gets so hot at that

time of year.

capable of doing something having the abil-

ity to do something. Do you think Tom

is capable of lifting 200 pounds? No one

I know is capable of such a crime!

a card an entertaining and clever person

who says or does funny things. (Preceded

by be, become, seem like, or act like.) He

is such a card. Always making jokes.

Mary is a card, and someone is going to

have to deal with her!

the cards are stacked against one luck is

against one. (Informal. Refers to playing

cards. See also have the cards stacked

against one; stack the cards (against some-

one or something).) I have the worst luck.

The cards are stacked against me all the

time. How can I accomplish anything

when the cards are stacked against me?

carried away excited or moved to (ex-

treme) action (by someone or some-

thing). The crowd got carried away and

did a lot of damage to the park. I know

that planning a party is fun, but don’t get

carried away.

carry (a lot of ) weight (with someone or

something) to be very influential with

someone or some group of people.

Your argument does not carry a lot of

weight with me. The senator’s testimony

carried a lot of weight with the council.

Her opinion carries weight with most of

the members.

carry a secret to one’s grave Go to carry

a secret to the grave.

carry a secret to the grave and carry a

secret to one’s grave to avoid telling a se-

cret, even to the day of one’s death.

John carried our secret to his grave.

Trust me, I will carry your secret to the

grave!

carry a torch (for someone) to be in love

with someone who is not in love with

you; to brood over a hopeless love affair.

(Also with the.) John is carrying a torch

for Jane. Is John still carrying a torch?

Yes, he’ll carry the torch for months.

carry on (about someone or something) to

make a great fuss over someone or some-

thing; to cry and become out of control

about someone or something. (Note the

variation in the examples below.) Billy,

stop carrying on about your tummy ache

like that. Billy, you must stop carrying

on so. The child carried on endlessly

about his mother.

carry one’s cross Go to bear one’s cross.

carry one’s (own) weight and pull one’s

(own) weight to do one’s share; to earn

one’s keep. Tom, you must be more

helpful around the house. We all have to

carry our own weight. Bill, I’m afraid

that you can’t work here anymore. You just

haven’t been carrying your weight.

you would just pull your weight, we would

finish this by noon.

carry on somehow to manage to continue

somehow, in spite of problems. Even

though we did not have a lot of money, we

managed to carry on somehow. Don’t

worry about us. We will carry on somehow.

carry on without someone or something to

manage to continue without someone or

something. I don’t know how we will be

able to carry on without you. We can’t

carry on without a leader!

carry on (with someone or something) 1. [with

something] to continue with something.

Can I please carry on with my work

Yes, please carry on. 2. [with

someone] to behave improperly with

someone; to be affectionate in public.

Look at Jane carrying on with Tom. They

ought to be ashamed. Jane, stop carry-

ing on like that!

carry over to extend into another time pe-

riod or location. I don’t like for bills to

carry over into the next month. Please

do not let the paragraph carry over.

carry something out to perform a task; to

perform an assignment. (Also literal

meaning to remove something.) “This

is a very important job,” said Jane. “Do

you think you can carry it out?” T The stu-

dents didn’t carry out their assignments.

carry something over to let something like a

bill extend into another period of time;

to extend to another location. We’ll

carry the amount of money due over into

the next month. T Yes, please carry over

the balance.  We’ll have to carry this

paragraph over to the next page.

carry the ball 1. to be the player holding

the ball, especially in football when a goal

is made. (Sports.) It was the fullback

carrying the ball. Yes, Tom always car-

ries the ball. 2. to be in charge; to make

sure that a job gets done. (See also drop

the ball.) We need someone who knows

how to get the job done. Hey, Sally! Why

don’t you carry the ball for us?  John

can’t carry the ball. He isn’t organized

enough.

carry the day and win the day to be suc-

cessful; to win a competition, argument,

etc. (Originally meaning to win a battle.)

Our team didn’t play well at first, but

we won the day in the end. Hard work

won the day and James passed his exams.

carry the weight of the world on one’s

shoulders to appear to be burdened by

all the problems in the whole world.

Look at Tom. He appears to be carrying the

weight of the world on his shoulders.

Cheer up, Tom! You don’t need to carry the

weight of the world on your shoulders.

carry through (on something) Go to follow

through (on something).