Word.ws English Dictionary

calling off the dogs

calling off the dogs is the present participle and gerund 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 calling off the dogs

What is calling off the dogs the present participle and gerund of?
Calling off the dogs is the present participle and gerund of call off the dogs.

Words near calling off the dogs in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: calling 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: “calling off the dogs.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/calling_off_the_dogs. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.