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Glite Dictionary
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to call on

to call on

65 4.7
To challenge someone to explain or defend what they said
  • phrasal verb
  • /kɔl ɑn/
  • Informal
translation icon : pedir explicaciones a
  • It's like she will call you on it and she asks you really hard questions.

Now, these people tend to gaslight you if you try to call them on their behavior.

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Examples

  • During the meeting, she chose to call on him for his opinion about the proposal.

  • Sorry, but I just have to call you on this.

    50/50 (2011)

  • Once he was called on to explain what he knew about the American Civil War.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Post and share the truth about what is happening; call them out on their lies.

    Blog text (4)

  • Look, he was being rude, and I called him on it.

    Child's Play (2019)

  • I needed so badly for Tim or someone to call Ven out on his disturbing behavior.

    Blog text (4)

  • If you make a mistake in your report, I will call on you to explain it.

  • After he made that bold claim, I had to call on him to provide evidence to back it up.

Synonyms

to call to account
vsto call on
  • Formal
3 6.0

Make someone explain what they did and take responsibility

is a more confrontational challenge pointing out inconsistency rather than formal inquiry
to call on the carpet
vsto call on
  • Archaic
3 7.9

To tell someone strongly that they have done something wrong, often in front of others

is more about confronting inconsistency and demanding justification rather than formal censure
to call (someone) out
vsto call on
  • Informal
1 5.8

Tell someone publicly that they did something wrong

is a focused demand for justification or responsibility not only public criticism
to call down
vsto call on
  • Informal
1 6.8

Tell someone angrily that they did something wrong

is a demand to justify actions or accept responsibility not just angry scolding

Antonyms

to excuse
178 2.5

Try to explain a mistake to make it seem less serious

How Confrontational

to accuse
∞ 2.7
to call out
  • Texting
68 4.6
to call on
  • Informal
65 4.7
to challenge
  • Formal
552 4.3
to question
777 3.5

Surface Forms

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

Morphology

call + on

The sense 'to challenge or ask someone to explain/take responsibility' is partly related to the idea of 'call' as summoning or requesting and 'on' as directed toward someone, so a learner may get a general sense of addressing or asking someone. However, the specific pragmatic nuance of demanding justification or holding someone accountable is an extended, discourse-level meaning not directly predictable from the literal constituents without prior exposure.

Etymology

Call on meaning to challenge someone may come from the image of a person pointing and calling someone on a wrong claim, forcing them to explain or own it. So, it means 'to challenge someone to justify a statement or take responsibility for an action'.