Word.ws English Dictionary

calling it a day

calling it a day is the present participle of call it a day.

Meaning of call it a day

Verb

call it a day (third-person singular simple present calls it a day, present participle calling it a day, simple past and past participle called it a day)

  1. (idiomatic) To cease an activity.
    • We have been at this for hours; let’s call it a day and come back tomorrow when we are fresh.
  2. (idiomatic) To retire.
    • After suffering massive losses for three years in a row, the boss decided to call it a day, and sold his company.
  3. (idiomatic) To end a period of activity, either because it is unsuccessful or because enough has been done.
    • After he was reprimanded for slacking on the job, they decided to call it a day and fire Allen.

Questions about calling it a day

What is calling it a day the present participle of?
Calling it a day is the present participle of call it a day.

Words near calling it a day in the dictionary

  1. calling forth
  2. calling in
  3. calling in sick
  4. calling into doubt
  5. calling it
  6. calling it a day
  7. calling it a night
  8. calling it an early night
  9. calling it as one sees it
  10. calling it even
  11. calling it half a day

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: calling it a day (page history and authors); call it a day (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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