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call names

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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 somebody names

to use rude or insulting words to describe someone He was calling me names because he disagreed with something I'd written.

See also: call, name

call somebody names

to use impolite or unpleasant words to describe someone I was afraid that if I wore glasses to school, the other kids would call me names. It's a good thing he didn't hear me earlier - I was calling him all the names under the sun. (= using a lot of impolite words to describe him)

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