call-up

[ kawl-uhp ]
See synonyms for call-up on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. an order to report for active military service.

  2. the number of persons drafted during a specific period of time: The November call-up was set at 15,000.

  1. a call or urging to service.

Origin of call-up

1
First recorded in 1625–35; noun use of verb phrase call up

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

How to use call-up in a sentence

  • After an hour, however, he reached this decision: He would not go to or call up Mrs. Merley.

    The Homesteader | Oscar Micheaux
  • The memories which peaceful country scenes call up are not of this world, or of its thoughts or hopes.

  • Up, it being a snow and hard frost, and being up I did call up Sarah, who do go away to-day or to-morrow.

  • In the meanwhile I had received another cable from home telling me to call up a certain banker in Frankfurt.

    Ways of War and Peace | Delia Austrian
  • Distress signals (rockets) were fired, and attempts were made to call up by Morse a ship whose lights were seen.

    Loss of the Steamship 'Titanic' | British Government

British Dictionary definitions for call up

call up

verb(adverb)
  1. to summon to report for active military service, as in time of war

  2. (tr) to recall (something); evoke: his words called up old memories

  1. (tr) to bring or summon (people, etc) into action: to call up reinforcements

  2. to telephone

nouncall-up
    • a general order to report for military service

    • the number of men so summoned

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with call-up

call-up

Summon to military service, as in He was called up for active duty. [Late 1600s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.