Word.ws English Dictionary

calls off the dogs

calls off the dogs is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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 calls off the dogs

What is calls off the dogs the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Calls off the dogs is the third-person singular simple present indicative of call off the dogs.

Words near calls off the dogs in the dictionary

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

Source and license

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