call the

call (all) the shots

To dictate how a situation or agenda proceeds, as from a position of authority. My staff has to do what I say because I'm the boss, and I call all the shots here! Mom calls the shots for Thanksgiving dinner, so you better get her approval for any dish you want to bring.
See also: call, shot

call the tune

To dictate how a situation or agenda proceeds, as from a position of authority. The phrase is a shortened version of "Who pays the piper calls the tune," which means that the person who pays for something assumes control over it. My staff has to do what I say because I'm the boss, and I call the tune here! Mom calls the tune for Thanksgiving dinner, so you better get her approval for any dish you want to bring.
See also: call, tune

call the

shots/tune Informal
To exercise authority; be in charge.
See also: call
References in classic literature ?
They still show the ruins of a city which appears to have been once of note, as the place where she kept her court, and a village which, from its being the place of her birth, they call the land of Saba.
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The rum (for so the landlord chose to call the distillation from malt) had basely taken the advantage of the fatigue which the poor woman had undergone, and had made terrible depredations on her noble faculties, at a time when they were very unable to resist the attack.
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If the president or one of our spies knows al-Qaeda is going to call the United States, then he will have no trouble getting a court warrant with his probable cause.
The surveillance state unveiled: President Bush and adherents to his viewpoint have defended the idea that the government has a right to wiretap, but their assertions do not stand up to scrutiny
European customers who call the center are neither aware of its location nor experience any language problems.
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The year in review: the value of your AICPA membership
Jackie had been there himself as a QB and I always knew, without even asking, how he felt about play-calling -- "Let the QB call the game!"
The positives in having the QB: Call his own plays. (Football)
These parallel movements--toward "standard" speech and toward an idealized bourgeois future--conjoin to form what I call the voice-narrative of progress, which operated in a wide variety of black and white texts in the nineteenth century.
Raising Voices, Lifting Shadows: Competing Voice-Paradigms in Frances E. W. Harper's Iola Leroy
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`A Stickup Without a Gun'
I call the White House press office to make sure my credentials will be waiting for me.
Pressed for time
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At Heritage High School, we have our offensive linemen call the blocking pattern for every play.
Let your offensive line call the blocking!: call-blocking system based on the defensive front
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