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View synonyms for call the tune

call the tune

  1. To be in control. The phrase comes from the proverb The one who pays the piper calls the tune .”


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Idioms and Phrases

Make important decisions, exercise authority, as in Nancy said that it's her turn to call the tune . The full term is Who pays the piper calls the tune , meaning whoever bears the cost of an enterprise should have authority over it. [Late 1800s] Also see the synonym call the shots .
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Example Sentences

He, or she, who wields the gavel calls the tune.

And the Rehnquist court had a broad definition of corruption that encompassed rich donors’ power to “call the tune” for elected officials.

“Corporations have always called the tune ultimately. Everyone pays attention to the guys at the top and always has.”

The question, of course, is how long, even at those companies, the old law will be suspended — that he who pays the piper calls the tune.

Called Demo Le Abbay, meaning "If They Test Us on the Nile" in Amharic, it criticises "Egypt's shamelessness" - implying that the North African nation can no longer call the tune.

From BBC

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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