📞 To return call 🔙 To order return 🧠 To remember 💻 To run function

to call back

23 3.3

Ask someone to return after they have left

phrasal verb
/kɔl bæk/

: convocar

So I called back and it's gone again.

In fact, Zincone suspends the operation, calls back his men and abandons the forward troops and their guides.

Examples

I'm getting called back into a meeting.

Love Finds You in Valentine (2016)
It means we have to call back Doctor Lane.

MegaFault (2009)
I want you to shut down the entire museum and call back the police immediately.

My Mom's New Boyfriend (2008)
- Call back and tell them we're on our way.

Desired (2015)
Then surely he will call back and find out what to do.

Fiction book (1990)
Don't worry, the President will call back.

First Dog (2010)
He got called back to his head office, anyway.

Eye of the Beast (2007)
You've been called back before.

Eyewitness (1981)
And I ask McConnell again, call back the Senate, let us act.
Please call back later; I'm busy right now.

Synonyms

to recall

vsto call back

Formal

50 4.1

Order someone to return to their job or place

applies also to things and objects, not only people

to call in

vsto call back

42 3.6

Ask for something back, for example a product or loan

also applies to people returning after they have left or been sent away

Antonyms

to dismiss

110 2.7

To tell people to leave a meeting or room

to send away

43 3.0

Make someone leave a job or group because of a problem

How Forceful

to summon

Formal

200 5.3

to call back

23 3.3

Surface Forms

call back infinitive

called back past

called back past participle

calling back present participle

calls back third person singular

Morphology

call + back

The computing sense keeps a visible link to the constituents: 'call' (invoke) and 'back' (return/again), so a learner could infer a notion of invoking something again or in response. However, the technical meaning — executing a previously supplied function in response to an event — is a specialized, domain-specific extension that a B1 learner who only knows the literal words is unlikely to predict fully.

Etymology

Call back comes from the simple image of someone shouting call to a person who has left, asking them to come back. So, it means 'to ask someone to return'.