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Which terms are used for phone calls? I know only few and I am not sure if they are correct:

  • Make a call - to call someone and talk;
  • Call back - call the person who called but you didn't answer, hanged up or talk recently;
  • hang up - to interrupt a call or stop ringing.

The most curious I am how is it called when intentionally to save money, you just give a call to someone and until the call-receiver will manage to answer you hang up and waiting for call back?

iwlpe
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    hang up, hung up, hung up, For your question, there is no term. You call, let it ring until they answer and hang up. They then call you back. The British say ring someone, too. – Lambie Feb 16 '19 at 01:18
  • In my country especially when we were students it was so common, to just ring and hang up that some people were managing with the balance which was enough just for 3 minutes talk, to survive whole month. Probably that's why for this action we got the terms (even two), which word by word translation sounds like: "give a call" and "release the call". Good that I didn't try to translate and confuse native speakers :)) – iwlpe Feb 16 '19 at 15:20
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    Possible duplicate of 'miss call' or 'missed call' when it is 'yet to be missed!' –  Feb 16 '19 at 17:26

2 Answers2

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I'm not aware of any specific technical term or informal idiom for your specific request. When calling a mobile, there are some informal terms I've heard for calling and deliberately hanging up before they can answer, so they get a "missed call" showing up on their screen. One of those is to use "missed call" as a verb.

"I don't have much credit, so I'll just missed call him."

"I wish they wouldn't keep missed calling me."

Other terms you might come across include "pick up", meaning "answer", "voicemail" as a verb for leaving a voicemail, and "reverse the charges" (British) or "call collect" (American) for placing a call in a special way which causes the recipient to be asked if they will accept the cost of the call.

SamBC
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The English idiom "Give (someone) a ring" or "Give someone a buzz" can be used for calling someone on the telephone.
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"Cheapskate" might be used to describe the overall procedure of saving money, although it may have a derogatory tone.

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Robert
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