judgment call

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noun

Sports. an observational ruling by a referee or umpire that is necessarily subjective because of the disputable nature of the play in question, and one that may be appealed but not protested, as opposed to a matter of official rule interpretation: Balks and close plays at first are of course judgment calls, and umpires are human.

any subjective or debatable determination; personal opinion or interpretation.

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Origin of judgment call

First recorded in 1840–50

Words nearby judgment call

judges' rules, judgmatic, judgment, judgmental, Judgment Book, judgment call, Judgment Day, judgment debt, judgment note, Judgment of Paris, judgy

How to use judgment call in a sentence

Granting pretrial release is a judgment call with high stakes.
Jury trials are starting again. But the pandemic put some behind bars past their sentences.|Rachel Weiner|June 24, 2021|Washington Post
This came Wednesday night at Wrigley Field, with a judgment call by home plate umpire Chris Conroy.
Trea Turner and Dave Martinez left fuming over ‘brutal,’ ‘awful,’ ‘terrible’ and ‘just bad’ ump decision|Jesse Dougherty|May 20, 2021|Washington Post
Interesting that those who sat in judgment of him found those two sets of beliefs to be incompatible.
In Defense of Blasphemy|Michael Tomasky|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
If so, he has his silence -- on top of poor judgment -- to blame.
The Price of Steve Scalise’s Silence|Jason Berry|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST

Note: UNICOR uses its inmates for everything from call center operators to human demolishers of old computers.
How a ‘Real Housewife’ Survives Prison: ‘I Don’t See [Teresa Giudice] Having a Cakewalk Here’|Michael Howard|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
This is the Mexico that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and most major U.S. corporations, are eager to call amigo.
Why Mexicans Are Enraged by Obama’s Big Tuesday Meeting|Ruben Navarrette Jr.|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Al Qaeda has never managed to carve out a large chunk of real estate to call its own—in Afghanistan it was a guest of the Taliban.
ISIS’s Futile Quest to Go Legit|Jamie Dettmer|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Everything is topsy-turvy in Europe according to our moral ideas, and they don't have what we call "men" over here.
Music-Study in Germany|Amy Fay
But it seems to me that with adolescence comes the right to knowledge and the right of judgment.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
Now for the tempering of the Gudgeons, I leave it to the judgment of the Workman; but a word or two of the polishing of it.
Tintinnalogia, or, the Art of Ringing|Richard Duckworth and Fabian Stedman
It was like his beautiful courtesy to call me in and introduce me to Blow instead of letting me go away.
Music-Study in Germany|Amy Fay
After an hour, however, he reached this decision: He would not go to or call up Mrs. Merley.
The Homesteader|Oscar Micheaux

judgment call

Origin of judgment call

Words nearby judgment call

Words related to judgment call

How to use judgment call in a sentence