Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
📞 To return call 🔙 To order return 🧠 To remember 💻 To run function
to call back

to call back

4 5.0
Run a piece of code you gave earlier when an event happens
  • phrasal verb
  • /kɔl bæk/
  • Specialized
translation icon : invocar
  • The program will call back the function once the data is loaded.

And so it's kind of, it's the method calls you back into kind of deep, deep, deep, deep down.

Examples

  • Not true; from a programming point of view, it is called back-faced culling and occurs on every 3D graphics card around to save approximately 50% processing time.

    Blog text (7)

  • After the user submits the form, the system will call back the specified function.

  • The board then returned at 8:35 and called the public meeting back to order.

    Blog text (11)

  • When I say nearby, we're going to get a delegate call back which is session for connection type.

  • I say here quote call back functions on the slide, but it's not really call back functions per SE.

  • So, when you put in our registration code, it needs to call back to our server for validation.

    Blog text (7)

  • So I'm sure that's the the reason why they haven't called you back.

    Nasty (2022)

  • Call it scaling back.

    Blog text (24)

  • "I can see it now... they'll open up a chain of salons where this procedure is done, and call it 'Back Petal'... which will sound exactly like what women's rights are doing.

    Blog text (24)

  • Make sure the application can call back the event handler after completing the task.

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 in computing comes from the picture of asking someone to phone you when work is done; a program 'calls back' a small piece of code when a task finishes. So it means 'to run a small piece of code later when an event happens'.