calling

Pluralcallings

1. 1
   -ing formverb

   Present participle and gerund of call.

   The teacher was calling out names from the attendance list.

   He spent the whole morning calling clients about the delay.

   UsageOn the phone it can stand alone: Who's calling? asks who is on the line.

2. 2
   inner urgenouncountable

   A strong inner sense that one is meant for a particular kind of work or way of life, often a religious one.

   After years of doubt, she finally answered her calling and entered the seminary.

   He described his calling as an unshakable pull toward the priesthood.

   UsageYou answer, feel or follow a calling, often a calling to a life or to become something.

   Similarvocation

   Note

   Here the word still holds the summons inside it: call plus -ing, a being-called rather than a choosing. The urge is pictured as coming from outside the person. In a weaker form, the same idea gives the everyday sense of an occupation, where the summons has faded into simply a line of work.

3. 3
   jobnouncountable

   A person's trade or profession: the actual work someone does for a living, rather than an inner sense of being drawn to it.

   He was a printer by calling, though in his spare hours he wrote poems that no one else ever read.

   Teaching turned out to be a steadier calling than she had expected.

   UsageOften in by calling: a printer by calling.

   Similaroccupation, profession, trade, career

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