Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see buick v.

see under Earl n.¹

see under Hughie n.

see under Ralph n.

to scold, to tell off.

1815		Mthly Rev. June 209: Let not, then, that clergyman complain who is called over the coals for wearing coloured stockings and dirty boots.
1823		Scott Peveril of the Peak (1827) 118: Partly out of fear lest I be called over the coals for last night's matter;.
1839		Mirror of Parlt. July 17 3998/1: It is most unjust that the Noble Lord should be called over the coals in this manner.
1845		Carlisle Jrnl 22 Feb. 2/8: He has again been called over the coals.
1850		Era (London) 8 Sept. 3/2: Some two or three Licensed Victuallers who were ‘called over the coals’ on the last occasion, have continued to permit Betting Lists in their houses.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 345/1: If I’m seen to gallop, and anybody tells our people, I’m called over the coals.
1871		Dundee Courier 14 Nov. 2/2: Mr James Grant [...] was called over the coals [...] by Mr Disraeli’s solicitors.
1885		Edinburgh Eve. News 25 Feb. 2/7: Mr Gladstone had felt it his serious duty to subject his indiscreet lieutenant to the unpleasant process known as being ‘called over the coals’.
1895		J. Greenwood Behind A Bus 140: I got called over the coals for that.
1906		E. Pugh Spoilers 235: I shall have to call you over the coals for your share in this little business.
1919		Marvel 3 Mar. 3: We haven’t been called over the coals yet.
1926		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 31 May 5/1: [headline] Mr F.B. Varley, M.P., Called Over the Coals.
1939		Yorks. Eve. Post 29 May 8/3: [cartoon caption] Being Called Over the Coals.
1989		L. Aparvary Legionnaire’s Journey 47: I raked myself over the coals for getting my friends into this mess .

(US black) to insult through name-calling.

1925		S. Miller ‘Kitchen Mechanic Blues’ 🎵 Women talk about me, they lies on me, calls me out of my name; / They talk about me, they lies on, calls me out of my name.
1938		C.M. Martin ‘Powdersmoke Showdown’ in Real Western Nov. 🌐 Johnny Straight had called him out of his name; had asked for a settlement.
1962		T. Berger Reinhart in Love (1963) 131: Ah dint come here to be called out of my name.
1994		C. Major Juba to Jive 78: Call [one] out of [one’s] name v. (1900s–1940s) most popular in the thirties, this expression refers to the business of insult through name-calling.

(US) to call someone’s bluff.

1981

Penthouse Mar. 159: Pimps seem awful tough [...] until we call their card [HDAS].

(US) to call someone’s bluff, to challenge.

2000

‘Yplante’ ‘One step forward, three back...’ posting 28 Nov. on ‘Training Horses’ at Yahoo! Groups 🌐 When he acts like this I feel it’s a no win situation, but should I be calling his game more when he’s acting inappropriately?

(US) to issue a challenge, to call someone’s bluff.

1857		S.F. Call 25 Mar. 1/1: Finally, after floating through a mist of metaphors, his good nature gets the better of him; and he concludes to ‘call our hand’ [DA].
1869		New North-West (Deer Lodge, MT) 12 Nov. 3/4: R.B. Campbell [...] is swinging the hammer of Vulcan. See his card, and call his hand on blacksmithing.
1884		Dly Morn. Astorian (OR) 31 Jan. 3/3: Villard threatened a disclosure [...] and rather than ‘call his hand’ he was given control of the corporation.
1898		T.N. Page Red Rock 493: Called your hand, rather, didn’t he? [DA].
1909		N-Y Tribune 26 Sept. 31/2: Put it to him straight. Call his hand.
1920		Wash. Times (DC) 26 Mar. 24/3: If all the generation-old cohort should call his hand he would never stem the tide.
1948		Daily Ardmoreite 4 Apr. 1/1: Some time, and very soon, something to call the Russian hand will have to be done [DA].

a male prostitute who can be hired on the phone.

1961		A. Reiss in Cressey & Ward Delinquency, Crime, and Social Process (1969) 987: The call-boy who does not solicit in public.
1977		R. Lloyd Playland 36: Professional call-boys at a hundred bucks a throw aren’t my bag.
1982		Maledicta VI:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 139: [A] gay prostitute (young volunteer, call-boy, cottage or tea-room cruiser or troller, club and pub pro).
2003		K. Cage Gayle.
2010		W. Ings ‘Trolling the Beat to Working the Soob’ in Int’l Jrnl Lexicog. 23:1 58: [T]he paper is concerned not with language about male prostitution but with language used by male prostitutes. In this regard there is an absence of terms like he-whore, callboy and hustler.

(US) a brothel.

1912		Inter Ocean (Chicago) 27 Jan. 10/4: "Do you know about any disorderly houses [...] in your district’ [...] ‘There was a “call flat” at 3517 Indiana avenue, but we drove that out’.
1915		Day Book (Chicago) 17 Mar. 32/2: Mrs Yorke was arrested and fined for conducting a ‘call flat’ in a fashionable apartment building at 447 Fullerton Parkway.
1927		Cttee of 14 Annual Report q. in Mackey Pursuing Johns (2005) 49: Most of these call flat madames [...] had long lists of girls on call.
1929		S. Ornitz Haunch Paunch and Jowl 254: Now she’s old she keeps a nice, respectable call-flat.
1933		Salem News (OH) 20 June 3/2: J.B. picked Margaret up in a — well, a call-flat on Fourteenth st.
1940		S. Longstreet Decade 317: The John Laws are knocking over cathouses, clip-joints, [...] call apartments.
1950		Chicago Sun. Trib. Grafic Mag. 23 Apr. 16/1: Next time the man phones [...] he is asked for his code number. When this is checked he is directed to a call flat, wither that of the girl he first met or another if he prefers.
2006		(ref. to 1920s) E.A. Clement Love for Sale lxxxvii: The most common institution of prostitution in the 1920s was the ‘call flat,’ a variation on the old brothel of the nineteenth century. The name derived from madams' reliance on telephones to organize their business.

see separate entry.

see separate entry.

(US) a brothel.

1938		J. Weidman I Can Get It For You Wholesale 129: This charge account you go with [to] that [...] call joint.
1941		S.G. Wolsey Call House Madam 109: Run it as a call joint, but keep the standard up. High prices. A minimum twenty-five dollar fee. Something about that. Keep the riffraff out.
1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.

(W.I.) a fish too small for human consumption.

1943

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

see separate entry.

1. of a street-seller, to move on.

1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 16: Call-a-Go in street ‘patter,’ is to remove to another spot, or address the public in another vein.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 236/1: ‘When a thing’s humped [...] you can only “call a go.”’ To ‘call a go’ signifies to remove to another spot, or adopt some other patter, or, in short, resort to some change.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 14: Call-ago, to stop trying to sell in one place and start in another.

2. to give up.

1864		Hotten Sl. Dict. 144: Call-a-Go [...] to give in, yield, at any game or business. Probably from the ‘GO’ call in cribbage.
1873		Sl. Dict.

catch-phrase in which the first missing word or phrase, a command, a is linked to the joc. missing nickname that it inspires.

1936		Archie Seale Man About Harlem 18 Apr. [synd. col.] Here are a few of the new phrases [...] ‘Cut ma legs off and call me shorty’ . . . . and ‘Knock me a pair of stilts and call me lanks’.
2022		Twitter 15 Nov. 🌐 Well cut off my legs and call me shorty - who could have predicted this?

see under spade n.

see separate entry.

(W.I.) to address an elder or senior person without using Mr, Mrs or Miss.

1996

Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage.

(US) to snore.

1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 219: I know I’m gonna call some hogs soon as I hit my roost.
1996–2000		(con. 1940s) Deuce Ofay Productions ‘The Jive Bible’ at JiveOn.com 🌐 Calling hogs: v Creating harsh, snorting noises during sleep; To snore.

see under marker n.²

(US) to challenge, to call someone’s bluff.

1881

Ingraham Buffalo Bill from Boyhood 98: ‘We’ll go up and call in their chips, Billy,’ was the universal decision [HDAS].

to stop, to go no further, to express satisfaction with progress or acceptance that one cannot improve a position.

1836		D. Crockett Exploits and Adventures (1934) 168: Poor Thimblerig was obliged to break off conjuring for want of customers, and call it half a day.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Feb. 12/2: Young Wiggins: ‘See here, pop, I be too little to lick you, and you be too big to lick me. Let’s call it a day.’.
1897		A.H. Lewis Wolfville 140: We takes a drink on the house, quits, an’ calls it a day.
1919		H.C. Witwer Smile A Minute 49: I’m positive that all the French I’ll ever learn will never show on me nowheres, and I’m ready to call it a day right now.
1924		D. Hammett ‘Zigzags of Treachery’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 108: Midnight came, and no John Boyd, and I called it a day, and went home.
1932		I.L. Idriess Flynn of the Inland 85: He always reads the paper before calling it ‘a day’.
1940		O. Strange Sudden Takes the Trail 81: If we could scare up a good excuse to clear out that gang at Dirty Dick’s, I’d call it a day an’ bounce the pair o’ you.
1959		C. Himes Crazy Kill 118: It’s four o’clock [...] Nothing for it now but to call it a day.
1965		E. Bond Saved Scene vi: fred: Call it a day. len: In a minute.
1976		E. Thompson Caldo Largo (1980) 206: We had two bottles of pretty good champagne. I was ready to call it a night.
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 30: I’m going to wind it up. Call it a day.
1984		W. Murray Tip on a Dead Crab 41: Get him cooled out now and we’ll call it a day.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 75: They dumped the body at the hospital and called it a night.
1999		Indep. 10 Aug. 8: The Oasis guitarist [...] announced yesterday he had decided to ‘call it a day’ and leave the band.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 265: No more crazy ideas J . . . thats it . . . call it a day for the love of money.

(W.I.) to agree that a matter is concluded, to bring to an end, e.g. a day’s work.

1996

Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage.

(US black) to die.

1944		‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.
1957		R.S. Gold ‘Vernacular of the Jazz World’ in AS XXXII:4 279: call off all bets. To die.

see call the shots

1. (US) to reprimand, to scold.

1963		H.S. Thompson letter 28 April in Proud Highway (1997) 378: I will [...] be called on the carpet and lectured like a criminal for issuing bogus cheques.
2008		J.M. Lang On Course 256: Take whatever measures seem appropriate to you: locking the door at the start of class, [...] calling tardy students on the carpet as they walk in the door,.

2. (US prison) to challenge another speaker to justify his remarks, whether hostile, gossiping or whatever.

1992

Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 92: Call Him on the Carpet Challenge someone to be accountable for his remarks or actions.

1. to challenge to a fight.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Jan. 6/2: The marriage was a civil one, and a journalist of religious proclivities having hinted at their living in a state of concubinage, he was promptly ‘called out’ by M. Hughes and sent to – let us hope – a happier sphere.
1899–1901		H. Lawson ‘Telling Mrs Baker’ in Roderick (1972) 417: Need went to the public-house where the barmaid was and called the landlord out.
1908		H. Green Maison De Shine 52: Why don’t you be game? I’d like to see some feller call me, an’ me not get back to him!
1914		Luton Times 24 Apr. 6/7: She told the defendant to leave the shop [...] he replied that he could ‘callee’ (fight), and would not leave for fifty d— policemen.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 181: ‘Hey, Gasolino,’ someone said in the crowd, ‘you’re called out, man.’.
1980		(con. 1971) W. Sherman Times Square 58: They’ve got to call each other out before they play.
2000		G.V. Higgins At End of Day (2001) 162: Fights over women and fights over money and somebody called someone out from a barroom.
2016		F. Stuart ‘Dispatches from the Rap Wars’ in chicagomag.com 🌐 Sometimes the guys will record a video but wait to release it until a rival gang member—preferably one they’ve called out—is shot, so that it seems like CBE is taking credit.

2. (US Und.) to use a stolen cheque.

1928

M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 260: Call Out — to use a stolen check to get baggage, etc.

3. (US campus) to identify negatively, to criticise.

1970		J. Bouton Ball Four 292: [Coach] Eddie O’Brien continues working at being one of the boys. He didn’t even call Marty Pattin for reading a magazine in the bullpen.
1994		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 2: call out – point out someone else’s fault.
2004		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 2: call someone out – embarrass: When the teacher corrected the student’s pronunciation, the student complained that the teacher had called her out.
2004		(con. 1994) J.A. Juarez Brotherhood of Corruption 183: ‘Sorry, Bill, no offense meant.’ ‘No offense taken,’ he replied. ‘You called them out for what they are’.
2018		Lukianoff & Haidt Coddling of Amer. Mind 10: [S]tudents [...] were quick to ‘call out’ or shame others for small things that they deemed to be insensitive.
2023		J. Jackson Pineapple Street 256: He had somehow managed to play both sides, never calling out his sisters, never truly promising to pick Sasha and put his wife first.

see call full-mouth

(US) to call ‘heads or tails’ when a coin is tossed.

1999

Kidsports.org 🌐 ‘Tiebreaker Plan’: At the coin toss, the visiting team captain shall be given the privilege of calling the coin while it is in the air.

(Aus./N.Z.) to abandon one’s efforts, to admit defeat.

1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 175/1: since ca. 1912.
1941		in Baker N.Z Sl.
1955		B.J. Cameron Collection (TS July) n.p.: call the game in (v) To cry quits, admit defeat [DNZE].
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 231/2: call the game in – give up.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 42: call the game in Quit, eg, Time to call the game in, fellas, the fish ain’t biting.’ ANZ c1912.

see under knock n.¹

see shout the odds under shout v.

to dictate a course of action, to say what should happen.

1937		E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 49: ‘Call your shot, Bowie,’ Chicamaw said.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 96: You call your shots all the way in viperland.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 90: Jimmy [...] is close to the Governor and calls the shots.
1966		H.S. Thompson Hell’s Angels (1967) 51: Others had quit and many of his best specimens had gone north to Oakland [...] where Sonny Barger called the shots.
1977		C. McFadden Serial 55: Good old Sam had really called the shots.
1987		(con. 1930s) L. Redmond Emerald Square 326: I started another row over his presumption that he was calling the shots.
1999		Indep. Rev. 10 Nov. 6: All are more or less in thrall to the ‘wise guys’, the syndicate wheels who call the shots.
2000		Guardian G2 11 May 9: It is the women who calls the shots in her line of work.
2014		T. Black Artefacts of the Dead [ebook] Leave her to me [...] I’m the one calling the shots.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 113: He was [Police Chief] Parker’s man [...] He’d call the shots now.

(US) to predict accurately.

1887		Lantern (N.O.) 9 Jul. 5: Calling the turn for McEvery means a big box-stuffing.
1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 18: They are professional grafters, every one of them, and I can call the turn on nearly fifty myself.
1908		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Clarion Call’ in Voice of the City (1915) 191: You’ve called the turn.
1917		Van Loan ‘By a Hair’ in Old Man Curry 69: Your friend Solomon called the turn on the get-rich-quick stuff.
1927		C.M. Russell Trails Plowed Under 6: ‘Neighbor, you’re a long way from your range.’ ‘You call the turn,’ says I, ‘but how did you read my iron?’ ‘I didn’t see a burn on you,’ says he, ‘an’ from looks, you’ll go as a slick-ear.’.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 46: Call the Turn. – To identify a criminal or solve a problem.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 138: I judge Greebins calls the turn in figuring her to come back to him when she discovers the true situation about the money.
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 12: The boys in the background call the turn and pull the strings.