Etymology First attested in the mid-17th c., from the resemblance to cats' nocturnal cries. From cat + call.
1
A shout or whistle expressing dislike, especially from a crowd or audience; a jeer, a boo.
There, amid the curses and catcalls of sweaty beer drinkers, the tour's headliners are set to engage in a hallowed feminist ritual:1998 Aug, Vibe, page 44:
2
A shout, whistle, or comment of a harassingly sexual nature, usually made toward a passing woman.
In the Room for Debate forum Stopping Street Harassment, the editors ask four people to weigh in on the question, Should current laws dealing with harassment be strengthened to include catcalling, or will that go too far in controlling speech and behavior? (A catcall in this context is defined as “a whistle, shout, or comment of a sexual nature to a woman passing by.”)2014 November 12, Kathering Schulten, “What Have Been Your Experiences With Catcalling or Other Kinds of Street Harassment?”, in The New York Times:
3
Historical A whistle blown by a theatre-goer to express disapproval.
At what period was the custom of blowing catcalls at the theatre discontinued?1823, The Drama, Or, Theatrical Pocket Magazine, page 289:
Etymology First attested in the mid-17th c., from the resemblance to cats' nocturnal cries. From cat + call.
1
To make such an exclamation.
When Susan Seligson thinks about breasts — and, since she’s a DDD-endowed (touché) middle-aged woman who’s been groped and catcalled her whole life, that’s often, too — she thinks about ... her own DDDs.2007 January 4, Ada Calhoun, “Up Front”, in New York Times:
Etymology Short for change availability or type + call.
1
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Programming, Sciences In the Eiffel programming language, a run-time error caused by use of the wrong data type.
Java does not let you make members more private than they are in parent classes, so has no catcall problem for changing availability. Thus to avoid catcalls with export problems, you should adopt a once-public, always-public policy.1999, Ian Joyner, Objects Unencapsulated: Java, Eiffel, and C++?, page 244: