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to miss a call

to miss a call

2 1.6
Fail to answer a phone call before it stops ringing
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : perder una llamada
  • You know, I checked my phone and it seems that the only time I missed a call was right around... four o'clock.

Examples

  • She was upset because she missed a call from her best friend.

  • I didn't want to miss a call from my special friend.

  • Yeah, I just missed a call.

  • I missed a call from him earlier.

  • I missed a call from Mom on Friday, and called her back a little while later.

    Blog text (3)
  • Hey, we missed a call from Dave.

  • Don't worry if you have to miss a call or two, you'll get the recordings.

    Blog text (3)
  • I missed a call from my manager while I was in a meeting.

  • After checking my phone, I saw that I had missed a call from my doctor.

Antonyms

613 1.0

To open the door or pick up the phone when it rings

Surface Forms

miss a call infinitive
missed a call past participle
missing a call present participle
misses a call third person singular

Morphology

miss + a + call

The meaning 'fail to answer a telephone call' is directly and compositionally derived from 'miss' (fail to make contact) + 'a' + 'call' (a telephone instance). This follows a common English verb + noun pattern and has clear parallels in many languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

The phrase miss a call gives a simple picture: a phone is ringing and you miss the call because you do not pick up before it stops ringing. So, miss a call means 'to fail to answer a telephone call'.