Talk:call out

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call out

I am unfamiliar with 3 of the senses given:

1. (intransitive) To be absent from somewhere.

   I had to call out from work because I was sick.

2. (transitive) To prove wrong.

   If you lie about this, you will get called out.

3. (transitive, idiomatic) To bring particular attention to.

   I'd like to call out Leslie, because it's her birthday today.

1. I had always thought it would be "call in" sick and wouldn't have expected the opposite adverb to yield the same meaning.
2. I am aware of a sense "challenge", that would arguable include this.
3. Never heard it.

Also:

1. To arrange for a professional to call at your home for some purpose.

   I had to call out the doctor after she fell and broke her wrist.

I would have thought that I could call (anyone) in, out, or over. This seems just SoP. DCDuring TALK 20:16, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

1. I share your reservations about this.
2. I'm familiar with the second sense ("To prove wrong"), although it also exists in the form "to call one out" (e.g. "he'll call you out on that if you're not careful"), it might be related to "call one's bluff".
3. I think the third sense is possibly someone being called to the front of the group, or similar. If so there are hundreds of possible formulations for this so I'd be tempted to say that it is a sum of parts of "to call" + "out".
4. Given the use as a noun in the phrase "call out fee" the last sense would seem to be very plausible.

bgc and ggc are currently just giving me server errors so I can't check any of these hypotheses. Thryduulf 17:19, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

"Call out fee" has a UK sound to it to my US ear. Perhaps there is a regional difference.

Is it actually "prove wrong" or "challenge"? It is possible that the "challenge" sense is less colloquial than I had thought. DCDuring TALK 17:57, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

Thinking about it, it does mean "challenge" more than "prove wrong", although probably with the speaker expressing the opinion that the person being challenged will fail/be proven wrong. Thryduulf 21:22, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

Regarding "call out fee" (or the seemingly more common "call-out fee"), bgc hits do seem to suggest it is mainly British although not exclusively so. Thryduulf 21:27, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

RFV failed, senses removed. —Ruakh_TALK 19:27, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

a more positive sense

the phrase call out (my) name, which we currently have cited under "yell, audibly vocalize" associates with more positive emotions for me, as it's commonly heard when one person is seeking another's help. Often used in songs and poetry as well.... "Call out my name, I'll come running" or "i realized i was lost, but then i heard you calling out my name". i would like to either reword our sense or write a subsense for it, but emotions arent really a definition, so Im undecided right now what to do. —Soap— 18:50, 17 November 2023 (UTC)

The emotional associations for me are similar to those of call on, which may have some influence from count on. "You can always call on me for help" could have come from "you can always count on me for help". This may have somehow influenced "call out" as well. —Soap— 12:03, 20 November 2023 (UTC)