call someone's number

present singular third person calls someone's number · participle present calling someone's number · participle past called someone's number · past called someone's number

1. American footballTo be assigned to carry the ball at the start of a play.

   So on the first play, I asked the quarterback to call my number on an end sweep.

   2002, Rich Wolfe, Kurt Warner: And the Last Shall Be First, →ISBN, page 229

   2 more examples

   Billy was shocked; he didn't get that call once during spring practice, and now, in the spring game, they want to call his number on the first play.

   2011, W. S. Gaines, Blood on a Pew: Overcoming Tragedy Through the Truth of Eternity, →ISBN

   Now he told me that when the coach had diagrammed plays, he would move to the back of the huddle, in the hope that the coach wouldn't call his number.

   2015, Mark O'Connell, The Good Father: On Men, Masculinity, and Life in the Family, →ISBN, page 73

2. broadlyidiomaticTo focus on someone, asking them to prove themselves.

   I am glad to have that comment, Sir. I think you have about called our number on that.

   1969, Annmarie Hauck Walsh, The urban challenge to government

   2 more examples

   "I'm sure about this one," I said. "I'm starting the preparations." “Ok, I'm calling your number on this one. I got your word, and everyone else is out of the way.”

   2001, Stuart Kaufman, Engine Parts, →ISBN, page 60

   People have certainly died from laughing gas,” he says. “They can get into serious trouble using tanks and masks and they certainly shouldn’t be driving while doing it and should be careful round rivers and swimming pools,” he says. “But the second you get into saying people using nitrous in balloons is a massive issue, people will call your number on that, and they’re right. It’s a concern that it’s going up, the numbers of people using are quite stunning, but it’s not the most dangerous thing by a mile.”

   2014 August 13, Sam Wolfson, “Is the growth in nitrous oxide misuse a laughing matter?”, in The Guardian

3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see call, number.

   He called her number on his cell phone.

   2005, Wanjiru Waithaka, The Unbroken Spirit, →ISBN, page 218