Word.ws English Dictionary

called off the dogs

called off the dogs is the simple past and past participle of call off the dogs.

Meaning of call off the dogs

Verb

call off the dogs (third-person singular simple present calls off the dogs, present participle calling off the dogs, simple past and past participle called off the dogs)

  1. (idiomatic) To ease up on after inflicting great punishment.
  2. (idiomatic) During a one-sided sports contest, to remove the first-string unit of a team from the game after dominating the opponent.
    • Doing the opponents an obvious favor, the football coach decided to call off the dogs early after his team was up 56-0.

Questions about called off the dogs

What is called off the dogs the simple past and past participle of?
Called off the dogs is the simple past and past participle of call off the dogs.

Words near called off the dogs in the dictionary

  1. called it half a day
  2. called it quits
  3. called it stumps
  4. called names
  5. called off
  6. called off the dogs
  7. called on the carpet
  8. called onto the carpet
  9. called out
  10. called out of one's name
  11. called out sick

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: called off the dogs (page history and authors); call off the dogs (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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Cite this entry: “called off the dogs.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/called_off_the_dogs. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.