to call to order
- phrasal verb
- Formal
- Will the secretary please record that Mr. Hughes has arrived, and that this session is now called to order?
Examples
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"This meeting is called to order," he said.
Fiction book (1998) -
The annual meeting of the Society was called to order on Wednesday evening with James A. Turnbull, FPSA, presiding.
Academic text (1993) -
This meeting has been called to order.
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l would like to call to order--
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- The meeting is called to order.
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Come, I believe the meeting's been called to order and we don't want to keep the client waiting.
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The meeting was called to order at 2:30 p.m.
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Supervisor Plant called to order a meeting of the board at 7:30 PM in the Walworth Town Hall.
Blog text (11) -
I hereby call to order this emergency session of the 32nd Chapter of Kappa Omicron Kappa.
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The chairman will call to order the meeting at 10 AM sharp.
Synonyms
To hit a small wooden hammer to start a meeting
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The parts 'call' (to summon) and 'order' (command or state of order) give a partial clue that someone is being summoned to impose/order things, so a learner might infer it relates to summoning or requesting order. However, the specific procedural meaning 'formally announce the beginning of a meeting' is a conventionalized, register-specific collocation that is not fully predictable from the constituents alone, so a B1 learner would likely need exposure to acquire the exact sense.
Etymology
The phrase call to order comes from a simple scene: at noisy meetings the leader would call out 'Order!' to stop the noise and get everyone to listen. That's why it now means 'to start a meeting'.