callback

American  

[kawl-bak] / ˈkɔlˌbæk /

Or call-back

noun

1. an act of calling back.

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

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

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

5. recall.

6. a return telephone call.

7. 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.

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adjective

1. of or relating to a return telephone call.

   Please leave a callback number.

verb phrase

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.

3. to revoke; retract.

   to call back an accusation.

Etymology

Origin of callback

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

Example Sentences

The fate of the world is never in question, but a callback for a second audition means everything.

From Los Angeles Times

Several family members were killed, but Hind managed to answer a callback from the helpers at the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.

From BBC

Critics have cautioned that callback wait times can be over an hour.

From MarketWatch

Thanks for the energy policy wisdom wrapped in a Cold War callback.

From MarketWatch

Increasingly bonkers developments drive a pleasing final act that brings in several satisfying callbacks to the 1997 original.

From The Wall Street Journal