call one's own

1. Claim or regard something as one's possession or under one's control, as in Victorian wives had almost nothing to call their own. This expression, dating from about 1600, today is often used in a negative context, as in the example. It also appears in can't call one's time one's own, which dates from the 18th century and means one spends much of one's time in someone else's service, as in The hours in this job are terrible; I can't call my time my own.

Example Sentences

What’s the value of having a home to call one’s own?

From Los Angeles Times

Following a young, unnamed woman of color armed with multiple degrees and a bitter experience of the job market, this debut novel invokes the reality of living in a world where a reasonable demand — a place to call one’s own — is resolutely categorized as unreasonable.

From New York Times

“That feeling of being so unavoidably absorbed by or dissolved into another human being’s experience and then having to come back to what one might call one’s own, which is then completely alien, was hugely familiar,” said the chameleonic British actress, known for her turns in period biopic “W.E.” and the cosmic cult horror pic “Mandy.”

From Los Angeles Times

From the primal need for a place to call one’s own.

From Washington Post

Hongkongers’ relentless pursuit of a roof to call one’s own — or even just to move out of the family home — sees ingenious property developers and entrepreneurs push things to their rational conclusion, and then some.

From Time