Word.ws English Dictionary

call of nature

call of nature noun: the bodily urge to urinate or defecate.

Noun

call of nature (plural calls of nature)

  1. (euphemistic) The bodily urge to urinate or defecate.
    • It appears from the evidence adduced that after the canvass had continued five or six consecutive hours, Mr. FORBES and Mr. DECKER, two inspectors went out (though not in company) as they say in "obedience to a call of nature," and were gone five or ten minutes, leaving the box containing the votes...1871 February 1, “The Twombley-Carey Reports”, in New York Times, retrieved 03 Sep 2010
    • I came here yesternight for a call of nature and to do what none can do for me[.]1885, Richard F. Burton, chapter XXII, in The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, volume I, The Burton Club, page 228

call of nature meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Tagalog and Indonesian

call of nature in Tamil

இயற்கை உபாதை, இயற்கைக் கடன்

call of nature in Urdu

call of nature, needing to use the lavatory
حاجت hājat

call of nature in Tagalog

need to defecate or urinate (euphemistic)
tawag ng kalikasan

call of nature in Indonesian

need to defecate or urinate (euphemistic)
panggilan alam

Examples of call of nature in a sentence

  • Marie Dressor retreated from a roadside picnic with her husband and children, to heed a call of nature.1966 September 3, William F. Buckley Jr., “Violation Of Privacy Abetted by 'Bugging'”, in Beaver County Times, USA, retrieved 03 Sep 2010:
  • Cook's concentration may have been broken by a call of nature a few minutes earlier, when he held up play to visit the bathroom.2007 December 9, Simon Wilde, “England thankful for cautious Cook”, in Times Online, UK, retrieved 03 Sep 2010:

Forms of call of nature

pluralcalls of nature

Words formed from call of nature

Questions about call of nature

What does call of nature mean?
Call of nature means the bodily urge to urinate or defecate.
What is call of nature in Tamil?
Call of nature in Tamil is இயற்கை உபாதை, இயற்கைக் கடன். See Call of nature meaning in Tamil.
How do you use call of nature in a sentence?
Marie Dressor retreated from a roadside picnic with her husband and children, to heed a call of nature.
What part of speech is call of nature?
Call of nature is a noun.
What is the plural of call of nature?
The plural of call of nature is calls of nature.

Words near call of nature in the dictionary

  1. call note
  2. call notes
  3. call number
  4. call numbers
  5. call of duty
  6. call of nature
  7. call of the wild
  8. call off
  9. call off the dogs
  10. call office
  11. call on

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: call of nature (page history and authors); call of nature (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); حاجت (Urdu) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-call of nature.wav.

Cite this entry: “call of nature.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/call_of_nature. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.