last call
8
4.7
- noun
- /læst kɔl/
- US
:
última llamada
- Last call, track six, Newark connection passengers for Baltimore and Washington DC, all aboard.
- the bartender yelled "Last call!"
- make last call
- minutes before last call
Examples
-
As the clock approached midnight, the bartender announced, "It's last call for drinks!"
-
There was a banner around it which read, "Last call for alcohol."
Academic text (2012) -
- Sorry guys, we had last call, remember?
-
This is the last call for alcohol.
-
I made it to the stop just in time to witness last call at the 5:00 bars.
Blog text (13) -
Most bars push one last round of drinks at last call.
Blog text (32) -
Graham had stayed after last call and helped clean up.
Fiction book (1999) -
We made the last call shortly before eleven.
Fiction book (1994) -
Fellas, I'm afraid this is last call.
-
Ladies and gentlemen, last call for boarding for buses heading to New York City and Montreal, departure set for 7:00.
Synonyms
An announcement that a bar or pub stops serving alcohol
How Soon
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense ‘final announcement/opportunity’ is directly and compositionally derived from 'last' (final) + 'call' (announcement), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer that it refers to a final announcement. This construction is common in English (and parallels like 'last orders' exist in other languages), so the meaning is transparently built from the constituents though situational context (a bar) specifies the drinks aspect.
Etymology
Last call comes from busy bars where the bartender would make a final call—sometimes ringing a bell or calling out—that it was the last chance to order before closing. That's why last call means 'the final announcement or opportunity to order drinks'.