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Glite Dictionary
to call it

to call it

324 4.7
Decide to stop an activity and finish for now
  • phrasal verb
  • Informal
translation icon : dar por terminado
  • All right, everyone, let's call it a night.
  • let's call it

Examples

  • Erase this whole mess and call it a day.

    The Gorge (2025)

  • Let's call it even!

    The Boost (1988)

  • Everybody is ready to call it a week, except for Andrea.

    Mars (2024)

  • Call it quits.

    Unfavorable Odds (2022)

  • House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, a fellow Democrat, took to Twitter last month to call it "unsustainable and fiscally irresponsible."

    Academic text (2017)

  • After a long and exhausting day, we decided to call it a night and head home.

  • She worked hard on the project, but when the deadline passed, she had to call it and move on.

  • Realizing it was getting late, John suggested they call it and continue the game another day.

Synonyms

to give up
vsto call it
∞ 1.2

To stop trying to do something or accept defeat

is a decision to stop when it seems best not necessarily admitting defeat
to give it up
vsto call it
683 3.7

To stop doing something you once did

is a simple stopping without the sense of choosing the best moment to finish
to quit
vsto call it
653 1.5

To stop trying when something is too hard

is a decision to stop when it seems best rather than from hopelessness
to call it a night
vsto call it
  • Informal
52 3.2

Stop what you are doing for the evening, usually to go to bed or go home

is a general choice to stop when it feels like the right moment
to break off
vsto call it
50 3.2

To stop something suddenly before it is finished, for example a talk or relationship

is a deliberate decision to stop at a chosen point rather than a sudden interruption
to call it a day
vsto call it
  • Informal
42 3.1

To stop working for the rest of the day

is a broader decision to stop whenever it seems the best moment
to call it quits
vsto call it
  • Informal
34 3.9

To stop doing something because you cannot continue or feel you have done enough

is a chosen decision to stop when continuing seems unhelpful
to cut bait
vsto call it
  • Informal
8.8

Stop wasting time and either act now or give up a plan that does not work

focuses on choosing to stop at the right moment rather than forcing action

Antonyms

to continue
∞ 1.0

To keep doing something without stopping

to persevere
22 5.1

Keep trying to do something even when it is hard

How Final

to give up
∞ 1.2
to call it quits
  • Informal
34 3.9
to call it
  • Informal
324 4.7
stop
310 1.0
to pause
346 1.0

Surface Forms

call it infinitive
called it past
called it past participle
calling it present participle
calls it third person singular

Morphology

call + it

The meaning 'decide to stop' follows from 'call' (to name or regard) combined with a placeholder 'it' plus an implicit object (as in 'call it a day') — the idea is to 'name something as finished'. However, this requires a pragmatic/metaphorical inference (naming = treating as finished) and usually the collocate ('a day') to make the sense clear, so a B1 learner who only knows the literal meanings may not reliably predict it.

Etymology

Call it comes from the idea of someone 'calling' an end, like a referee who shouts to stop a game. Here call means to announce and it stands for the activity that ends, so call it means 'to stop' or 'to finish'.