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Glite Dictionary
to call someone a jerk

to call someone a jerk

5 5.7
Say someone is rude or mean to hurt their feelings
  • phrasal verb
  • Offensive
translation icon : llamar a alguien idiota
  • Marcella: Aw, Rich, all I did was call him a jerk.

Examples

  • She was upset when her friend called her a jerk for forgetting her birthday.

  • Then he calls me a jerk.

    Fargo (1996)

  • Yes, we can call her a jerk.

    Blog text (8)

  • And then he calls me a jerk and says the last guy who thought he was a jerk is dead now.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • -Listen, I'm sorry I called the wolf a jerk.

    Teen Wolf Too (1987)

  • But, do I want to call the guy a jerk for yelling 'fire!' in a crowded theater?

    Blog text (34)

  • Don't call your boss a jerk, or you might get fired.

  • If someone calls you a jerk, it's best to walk away and not escalate the situation.

Synonyms

to call someone a wuss
vsto call someone a jerk
  • Offensive
1 8.8

To say someone is not brave to make them feel bad

insults for being unpleasant or deliberately mean in behaviour
to call someone a moke
vsto call someone a jerk
  • Offensive
9.9

To insult someone by saying they are a fool

insults for being unpleasant or mean rather than for lacking intelligence

Antonyms

praise
161 1.0

Words or actions that show admiration for someone

How Insulting

to bully
  • Offensive
68 3.8
cruel
522 2.7
to call someone a jerk
  • Offensive
5 5.7
rude
594 1.0

Surface Forms

call someone a jerk infinitive
called someone a jerk past
called someone a jerk past participle
calling someone a jerk present participle
calls someone a jerk third person singular

Morphology

call + someone + a + jerk

The meaning 'to insult someone by referring to them as a jerk' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'call' (to refer to or name) with 'jerk' (a rude or contemptible person); the phrase literally means to name someone as a jerk. The syntactic pattern 'call someone [noun]' is a regular, compositional English structure and is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily understand the MWE.

Etymology

Call someone a jerk is like giving a quick, sharp name to someone: call means 'to name', and jerk is a rude word for a person who behaves badly, so the phrase means 'to insult' someone.