Becall

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To accuse. transitive

    "1741, Conny Keyber (pseudonym; attributed to Henry Fielding), An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews, edited by Sheridan W. Baker, Jr., Berkeley: University of California Press, 1953, Letter 6, p. 27, I no sooner see him, but I scream out to Mrs. Jervis, she feigns likewise but just to come to herself; we both begin, she to becall, and I to bescratch very liberally."

  2. 2
    To call upon; call forth; challenge. obsolete, transitive
  3. 3
    To call; summon. obsolete, transitive
  4. 4
    To call names; insult. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
challengechallenge

Example

More examples

"1741, Conny Keyber (pseudonym; attributed to Henry Fielding), An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews, edited by Sheridan W. Baker, Jr., Berkeley: University of California Press, 1953, Letter 6, p. 27, I no sooner see him, but I scream out to Mrs. Jervis, she feigns likewise but just to come to herself; we both begin, she to becall, and I to bescratch very liberally."

Etymology

From Middle English bicallen, bikallen, equivalent to be- + call.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.