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at someone's beck and call

 - 3 dictionary results

beck

1  [bek]
Use at someone's beck and call in a Sentence
–noun
1. a gesture used to signal, summon, or direct someone.
2. Chiefly Scot. a bow or curtsy of greeting.
–verb (used with object), verb (used without object)
3. Archaic. beckon.
—Idiom
4. at someone's beck and call, ready to do someone's bidding; subject to someone's slightest wish: He has three servants at his beck and call.
Origin:
1325–75; ME becken, short var. of becnen to beckon
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Word Origin & History

beck 
1382, "mute signal," from bekken (v.), var. of becnan "to beckon" (see beckon). Transferred sense of "slightest indication of will" is from 1470.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Idioms & Phrases

at someone's beck and call

Required to comply with someone's requests or commands, as in The boss expects the entire staff to be at his beck and call. The noun beck, now obsolete except in this idiom, meant "a gesture or signal of command, such as a nod or hand movement," whereas call signifies "a vocal summons." Also see dance attendance on.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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