Call /(ka̤l)/

imp. & p. p. Called; p. pr. & vb. n. Calling

1. To command or request to come or be present; to summon; as, to call a servant.

   Call hither Clifford; bid him come amain

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

   The Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.

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.

4. To give name to; to name; to address, or speak of, by a specifed name.

   If you would but call me Rosalind.

   And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.

5. To regard or characterize as of a certain kind; to denominate; to designate.

   What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.

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.

7. To show or disclose the class, character, or nationality of. [Obs.]

   This speech calls him Spaniard.

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.

9. To invoke; to appeal to.

   I call God for a witness.

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.

1. To speak in loud voice; to cry out; to address by name; -- sometimes with to.

   You must call to the nurse.

   The angel of God called to Hagar.

2. To make a demand, requirement, or request.

   They called for rooms, and he showed them one.

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.

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.

   I rose as at thy call, but found thee not.

2. A signal, as on a drum, bugle, trumpet, or pipe, to summon soldiers or sailors to duty.
3. An invitation to take charge of or serve a church as its pastor. (Eccl.)
4. A requirement or appeal arising from the circumstances of the case; a moral requirement or appeal.

   Dependence is a perpetual call upon humanity.

   Running into danger without any call of duty.

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.

6. Vocation; employment.
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.

8. A note blown on the horn to encourage the hounds. (Hunting)
9. A whistle or pipe, used by the boatswain and his mate, to summon the sailors to duty. (Naut.)
10. 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. (Fowling)
11. 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. (Amer. Land Law)
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.