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catcall. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
catcall, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
catcall in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
catcall you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
Mid-17th c., from the resemblance to cats' nocturnal cries. From cat + call.
Alternative forms
Noun
catcall (plural catcalls)
- A shout or whistle expressing dislike, especially from a crowd or audience; a jeer, a boo.
- A shout, whistle, or comment of a harassingly sexual nature, usually made toward a passing woman.
- (historical) A whistle blown by a theatre-goer to express disapproval.
1823, The Drama, Or, Theatrical Pocket Magazine, page 289:At what period was the custom of blowing catcalls at the theatre discontinued?
Translations
shout or whistle expressing dislike
Verb
catcall (third-person singular simple present catcalls, present participle catcalling, simple past and past participle catcalled)
- To make such an exclamation.
2007 April 1, Ada Calhoun, “Up Front”, in New York Times:When Susan Seligson thinks about breasts — and, since she’s a DDD-endowed (touché) middle-aged woman who’s been groped and catcalled her whole life, that’s often, too — she thinks about ... her own DDDs.
Translations
make such an exclamation
- Bulgarian: свиркам (bg) (svirkam), освирквам (osvirkvam)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: please add this translation if you can
- Finnish: viheltää (fi) (whistle), huudella (fi) (shout)
- German: buhen (de), ausbuhen (de), pfeifen (de), auspfeifen (de), nachpfeifen (de)
- Hungarian: (oda)füttyent, füttyöget (hu), füttyög (hu) (nők után)
- Russian: освистать (ru) (osvistatʹ), освистывать (ru) (osvistyvatʹ)
- Spanish: rechiflar (es) (whistle), abuchear (es) (shout)
- Swedish: bua (sv) (shout)
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Etymology 2
Short for change availability or type + call.
Noun
catcall (plural catcalls)
- (programming) In the Eiffel programming language, a run-time error caused by use of the wrong data type.
1999, Ian Joyner, Objects Unencapsulated: Java, Eiffel, and C++?, page 244:Java does not let you make members more private than they are in parent classes, so has no catcall problem for changing availability. Thus to avoid catcalls with export problems, you should adopt a once-public, always-public policy.