Meaning:
Making important decisions and controlling a situation.
Examples:
- From now on, I call the tune and you follow orders.
- Will we allow Russia to call the tune there?
- Hey, you call the tune, I'll play it.
- You call the tune.
- No longer is the U.S. able to call the tune, but nevertheless their role will be of significant importance.
- Regional forces competing with each other ought not call the tune, as currently seems to be the case in the presidential election.
- Why is the Commission dragging its heels in an area in which it holds all the cards and where it can set the pace, call the tune?
- Democracies also have a problem here because our educational establishments rely predominantly on the state for their funding and he who pays the piper seeks to call the tune.