call on
English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (General Australian): (file)
Verb
[edit]call on (third-person singular simple present calls on, present participle calling on, simple past and past participle called on) (idiomatic, transitive)
- (transitive) To visit (a person); to pay a call to.
- Synonyms: pay a visit, visit, wait on
- I really should call on my aunt more often.
- (transitive) To select (a student in a classroom, etc.) to provide an answer.
- He sat there, baffled, hoping nobody would call on him.
- 2007, Barbara Seranella, Deadman's Switch, Thomas Dunne Books, →ISBN, pages 33–4:
- “Mr. Rayney, Mr. Rayney,” the reporters clamored, and hands shot up. ¶ Charlotte called on the reporter from the L.A. Times, promising herself that she would lead with the OC Register reporter next time.
- (transitive) To request or ask something of (a person); to select for a task.
- Synonym: call upon
- The king called on his subjects to take up arms and defend the kingdom.
- 1909 October 14, Edward Kimball Hall, speech, in The Inauguration of Ernest Fox Nichols, D.Sc., LL.D., as president of Dartmouth College, The Rumford Press, page 88:
- The alma mater had again called on her sons in her hour of need and again they had responded.
- 1945 November and December, H. R. Fox, “The Jamaica Railway, 1845-1945”, in Railway Magazine, page 315:
- Because of the drastic reduction in the use of petrol and tyres the railway is now called on to effect practically all the island's transport, with the exception of a small amount handled by one coastwise steamer.
- 2002, Bruno Coppieters, “Legitimate Authority”, chapter 2 of Bruno Coppieters and Nick Fotion (editors), Moral Constraints on War: Principles and Cases, Lexington Books, →ISBN, page 46:
- De Gaulle called on the military to break with their hierarchical superiors and on the other French citizens to distance themselves from their government.
- (transitive) To have recourse to.
- (ditransitive) To correct; to point out an error or untruth.