call names


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

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

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

call names

To speak to or about another in offensive terms.See also: call, name