callback

or call-back

[ kawl-bak ]

noun
  1. an act of calling back.

  2. a summoning of workers back to work after a layoff.

  1. a summoning of an employee back to work after working hours, as for emergency business.

  2. a request to a performer who has auditioned for a role, booking, or the like to return for another audition.

  3. a return telephone call.

  4. 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.

adjective
  1. of or relating to a return telephone call: Please leave a callback number.

verb phrasecall back [kawl-bak] /ˈkɔl ˈbæk/ .
  1. to telephone (a person) who has called earlier:Our staff will call you back within 24 hours.

  2. to summon or bring back; recall: He called back the messenger.The actor was called back for a second audition.

  1. to revoke; retract: to call back an accusation.

Origin of callback

1
First recorded in 1925–30; noun use of verb phrase call back

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use callback in a sentence

  • She wondered if he saw through her pitiable attempt to call back the words that had flung themselves upon him.

    The Creators | May Sinclair
  • Did 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 Kennedy
  • Maybe they would have radio communication after they got there and he would call back and say, Hello, Mom!

    Zero Hour | Alexander Blade
  • He 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. Molesworth
  • With 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

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.