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📞 To phone 🪖 To order to serve 💻 To access information 💭 To remember 🗣️ To bring for discussion 🪖 An order to serve
to call up

to call up

29 4.4
To order someone to start military service
  • phrasal verb
  • /kɔl ʌp/
  • Specialized
translation icon : movilizar
  • You've been called up as part of the emergency replacement task force.

And then I ended up getting called up for to fight for England.

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Examples

  • Israel's retaliation has included airstrikes as well as calling up troops for a possible ground invasion.

    Blog text (19)

  • Who would have thought that I would be called up to save my country?

  • And then I ended up getting called up for to fight for England.

    Anything Goes With James English

  • My fourth job was when I was called up for jury duty.

    Mary and Max (2009)

  • Some of you will be called up for military service.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • He was one of the first people called up.

    Orange County (2002)

  • The New York Times reports that early Friday, Israel called up 16,000 troops.

    Blog text (11)

  • Thousands of Israeli reservists have been called up for a possible ground invasion.

    Blog text (10)

  • The British government has stepped in and called up 3,500 troops to fill in.

    Blog text (21)

  • The government decided to call up reservists to support the military during the crisis.

Synonyms

to summon
vsto call up
  • Formal
200 5.3

Officially call someone to come, often to court

applies to military activation rather than general urgent requests to attend
to draft
vsto call up
  • US
96 5.3

To require someone to join the army

orders existing personnel into active service rather than selecting civilians
to mobilize
vsto call up
34 6.1

To prepare and organize troops and equipment for war

activates individual personnel for service rather than organizing forces and resources
to conscript
vsto call up
9 7.2

To force someone to join the army by law

orders people to active duty without implying legal compulsion
to muster in
vsto call up
  • Jargon
8.4

To officially add someone to the army as a soldier

activates personnel for immediate service rather than enrolling new members

Antonyms

to discharge
  • Formal
100 4.4

Officially release someone from a duty, job, or responsibility

How Compulsory

to conscript
9 7.2
to draft
  • US
96 5.3
to call up
  • Specialized
29 4.4
recall
  • Formal
9 5.1
to volunteer
391 2.0

Surface Forms

call up infinitive
called up past
called up past participle
calling up present participle
calls up third person singular

Morphology

call + up

The sense 'to make available / retrieve' can be inferred from 'call' in the sense of 'summon' or 'invoke' combined with the particle 'up' meaning 'bring into view' or 'into an active state', so a learner who knows those constituent senses could plausibly guess the meaning. However, the particle meaning is variable across phrasal verbs and the specific uses (recalling a memory, displaying a file, mobilizing resources) are somewhat lexicalized and context-dependent, so the relation is not fully predictable without prior exposure.

Etymology

Call up (military order) comes from the image of leaders 'calling' people to come 'up' and join the army or go to duty; this is why the verb means 'to order someone to begin military service'.