Why does call off mean postpone? [closed]

In some contexts, such as sport, the verb "call" can be used to mean "declare that something is a" - eg "call foul", meaning "To declare something as being a foul". This probably originated from the referee literally shouting, ie "calling", "Foul!" and so "Call 'Foul!'" becomes "Call foul".

Using this meaning, to "call off" means "To declare something as being off", and "off" is a synonynm for "cancelled". So if you were to say "We don't have enough players, I'm cancelling the game", this could be worded as "We don't have enough players, I'm calling off the game", and this could be further shortened to "I'm calling it off." or "I'm going to call off the game."