callback
or call-back
an act of calling back.
a summoning of workers back to work after a layoff.
a summoning of an employee back to work after working hours, as for emergency business.
a request to a performer who has auditioned for a role, booking, or the like to return for another audition.
a return telephone call.
an allusion to a joke made earlier in the same comedy act or show:The kitten yelling “Quiet!” at the end was a callback to earlier in the episode when the two normally silent brothers shouted it.
of or relating to a return telephone call: Please leave a callback number.
Origin of callback
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use callback in a sentence
He doesn't call back, nor does he come in the studio the next day.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days | David Freeman | December 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThen he'd call back the next day and say the trip had been delayed.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days | David Freeman | December 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST“We always call back to something from our previous shows,” explained Seguin.
Chaz Bono’s ‘Independence Day’: Strippers, Racism & More Crazy Moments | Anna Klassen | June 25, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTWhen her father found out, he forced her to call back and tell CPS she had been lying, and no one from the agency followed up.
‘Banished’ Lauren Drain on Growing Up in the Westboro Baptist Church | David Sessions | March 5, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTThey insisted on a call back from them to me before flashing the bulletin.
She wondered if he saw through her pitiable attempt to call back the words that had flung themselves upon him.
The Creators | May SinclairDid you express any surprise for him to call back almost immediately giving you the same message that he had given previously?
Warren Commission (3 of 26): Hearings Vol. III (of 15) | The President's Commission on the Assassination of President KennedyMaybe they would have radio communication after they got there and he would call back and say, Hello, Mom!
Zero Hour | Alexander BladeHe promised to call back in an hour or two, when he had been to the station and found out about the trains for us.
Grandmother Dear | Mrs. MolesworthWith a short-tempered bang, Smith hung up, after saying that he would call back later.
Cue for Quiet | Thomas L. Sherred
Other Idioms and Phrases with callback
Ask someone to return; also, ask that something be returned, as in He passed the first audition and was waiting to be called back, or These screws are defective; the manufacturer has called them back. [Late 1500s]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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