call for
Idioms-
Go to get someone or something, as in John said he'd call for Mary at eight , or Someone's at the door, calling for the package . [First half of 1600s]
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Summon someone or something. For example, The audience called for the playwright , or The judge called for the verdict . [First half of 1500s]
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Require, demand, as in This job calls for a lot of patience . [First half of 1700s] Also see no call for ; uncalled for .
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He did not cite any specific report that led to his call for a ban.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
Given what he did on an immortal day at Hampden in 2016, no Hibs supporter wanted to boo the man they called Sir David Gray, nobody wanted to call for his head.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
"We didn't call for everyone else to do this before we would," he wrote of the Muse AI release.
From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026
Hamm’s Oklahoma-based Continental Resources is the latest to answer President Trump’s call for U.S. companies to help revive Venezuela’s dilapidated oil sector.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
The police couldn’t let that kind of thing slide if a reporter were to wonder who was at fault and maybe call for someone’s punishment.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.