call in

[kawl in]

verb phrase

1. to call for payment; collect.

   The family struggled because her father was unwilling to call in the debts owed to him.

2. to call upon for consultation; ask for help.

   Management called in an independent engineering firm to determine the cause behind the roof collapse.

3. to inform, report, or request by telephone.

   The electric company will reward customers with a credit if they call in their own meter readings.

   Your doctor can call in the prescription to your local pharmacy.

4. to participate in a meeting or a radio or television program by telephone.

   The listeners who call in to my talk show about science ask the most intriguing questions.

5. to visit.

   We were instructed to call in to the office later to pay and complete the formal paperwork.

6. to withdraw from circulation.

   The country’s leader issued a proclamation calling in all gold coins and gold certificates.

noun

1. Radio and Television.,  a program in which listeners or viewers phone in comments or questions to the host or a person being interviewed.

2. Radio and Television.,  a live telephone conversation intended for broadcasting between a program's host and a person being interviewed.

adjective

1. Radio and Television.,  relating to or featuring such phone calls or conversations.

   My call-in program about gardening airs once a week on the local public radio station.

2. being or relating to a meeting, service, etc., that is accessed by telephone.

   The agenda will be sent out the morning of the meeting, along with all the call-in numbers needed.

   The grant funds a call-in hotline for low-income residents in the metro area.

call in

verb

1. to pay a visit, esp a brief or informal one

   call in if you are in the neighbourhood

2. (tr) to demand payment of

   to call in a loan

3. (tr) to take (something) out of circulation, because it is defective or no longer useful

4. (tr) to summon to one's assistance

   they had to call in a specialist

Word History and Origins

Origin of call in¹

First recorded in 1480–90

Idioms and Phrases

Summon for help or consultation, as in We've decided to call in a specialist to look at Father . [Second half of 1600s]

Withdraw from circulation, as in We're calling in all the old models . [Late 1500s]

Communicate by telephone, as in In this office salesmen must call in once a day . [Mid-1900s]

Example Sentences

After knowing Erivo for more than 15 years, she received a call in 2022 asking her to create nails for the upcoming Wicked film, released last year.

Read more on BBC

The FAA didn’t immediately comment on whether controllers who called in fatigued would be eligible.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

At 10:50 p.m., a resident called in to say that fire was visible from her home on East Calaveras Street in west Altadena.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

And robots — which don’t call in sick, take bathroom breaks, take vacations or need healthcare — are a huge boon to employers.

Read more on MarketWatch

I think of it as what we call in anthropology a nativist movement, a foregrounding of the people in the land.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• ask 
• assemble 
• call 
• call for 
• convene 
• direct 
• draft 
• gather 
• invite 
• mobilize 
• recall 
• request 
• subpoena