call it a day
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
To declare the end of a task.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
In the end he slippered Pickerage and called it a day.
A desperate mix of pride and masochism would have kept me wallowing around until dark, but I was forcefully persuaded to call it a day.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Imported from Wikipedia “English-language idioms” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29), pending review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “call it a day” mean?
To declare the end of a task.
Is “call it a day” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.