name-calling

Compare call names.

name-calling (countable and uncountable, plural name-callings)

1. The use of derogatory labels in verbal attacks on a person or other entity.
   • 1940, Bessie Louise Pierce, A History of Chicago, volume 2, page 389:

     So inflammatory were the words of some preachers during these trying years that a resolution to silence, by mayoral proclamation, a continuation of name-calling from the pulpit was presented to the city council by one would-be pacifier.

   • 2011, Mike Mose, One Drop Too White, page 107:

     The next day things got heated in the schoolyard as the name calling began. It was three against one.

   • 2023 April 27, Jim Robbins, Mike Baker, Jacey Fortin, “A Transgender Lawmaker Is Exiled as Montana G.O.P. Flexes New Power”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 30 April 2023:

     […] a former Republican lawmaker who left the Legislature earlier this year after she clashed with party leaders over a series of proposed transgender bills and closed-door meetings, she said, devolved into yelling and name-calling.

   • 2025 May 1, Ross Barkan, “'Dark Woke' Is Cringey”, in Intelligencer‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: New York Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 1 May 2025:

     Can dark woke get the Democrats a Senate seat back in Ohio? What about Montana? Will enough name-calling put the Democrats in the mix in Missouri? It’s unlikely.

• call names (verb)
• name-caller

• call someone every name in the book

• mudslinging

• “name-calling”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• calling name