call names
Related to call names: Call signs
call (one) names
1. To mock or disparage one with rude or offensive names. My son is miserable because the kids at his new school call him names.
2. To speak to or about one derisively. I barely even know Lauren, so why is she calling me names to other people?
See also: call, name
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
call someone names
to call someone by an abusive or insulting name. Billy cried when the other kids called him names. John was punished for calling his teacher names.
See also: call, name
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
call names
Verbally abuse someone, use offensive epithets, as in The teacher told the children to stop calling names. This idiom was first recorded in the late 1600s but Shakespeare used a similar expression earlier in Richard III (1:3): "That thou hadst called me all these bitter names."
See also: call, name
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
call names
To speak to or about another in offensive terms.
See also: call, name
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
- call (one) names
- call somebody names
- call someone names
- no names, no pack drill
- 1FTR
- (one) could use (something)
- name names
- name no names
- I'm terrible at names
- I'm terrible with/at names