Idiom
answer the call of nature
Meaning
To satisfy a bodily urge to urinate or defecate.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Excuse me, I need to answer the call of nature.”
“During the long hike, he had to step behind a tree to answer the call of nature.”
“The speaker paused mid-sentence, clearly needing to answer the call of nature, and hurried toward the nearest restroom.”
Examples
simple
“Excuse me, I need to answer the call of nature.”
contextual
“During the long hike, he had to step behind a tree to answer the call of nature.”
complex
“The speaker paused mid-sentence, clearly needing to answer the call of nature, and hurried toward the nearest restroom.”
Origin
From *answer the call* and *call of nature*, used as a euphemism for the physiological necessity of urination or defecation. While the individual components are older, the full idiom appears in English by the mid-19th century as a polite substitution for describing the basic functions of the body.
Key words
Related idioms
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