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

to call back

457 2.8

Phone someone who called you earlier

phrasal verb
/kɔl bæk/

: devolver la llamada

I'll call you back with the details.
I will call you back

And one of them calls me back, and he has some questions.

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Examples

Well, I meant to call you back last night when you called.

LOL Podcast
I'm not available right now, but leave a message, and I will call you right back.

Unfavorable Odds (2022)
But it's still no excuse not to call you back.

I Can't Breathe (God Forgive Them) (2022)
Anyway, just call me back.

Hit Man (2024)
I will call you back later, Mama.

The Dark Web Tapes (2020)
I'm getting a bit worried so please call me back, OK?
To my astonishment, Ashley called back and said the president would love to see me.

Academic text (2011)
Rabbi Sabo was busy, but he called back a few days later.

Fiction book (1992)
Lou Schwartz called me back and gave me a lot of figures.

Double Indemnity (1944)
Please call back later when you're free to talk.

Antonyms

to ignore

∞ 1.0

Choose not to pay attention to someone or something

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 plain idea of phoning someone again: you 'call' them and then call them back, where back means 'again'. So it means 'to return a telephone call'.