call down

Meanings

verbcall down (third-person singular simple present calls down, present participle calling down, simple past and past participle called down)

present singular third person calls down · participle present calling down · participle past called down · past called down

historicalTo lower (a price, value) by official proclamation.First known use 16th c.
transitiveTo bring (punishment, condemnation etc.) upon someone, as from above.First known use 16th c.
I shall call down God's wrath upon you!
obsoletetransitiveTo call for (a speaker) to stop speaking and sit down.First known use 17th–20th c.
CanadaUScolloquialtransitiveTo reprimand or insult (someone) severely.First known use 19th c.
He will call down his secretary if the latter's trousers are not well creased or his shoes not polished to a sparkle.
1946, A. A. Brill, Lectures on Psychoanalytic Psychiatry, Alfred Knopf, page 211

verbsummon into action or bring into existence, often as if by magic

Broader

verbcensure severely or angrily

Broader

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Cite this entry

APA

call down. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/call%20down

MLA

“call down.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/call%20down. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “call down,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/call%20down.