callback

Or call-back

[kawl-bak]

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.

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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of callback¹

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

Example Sentences

“If you send an email and wait for a callback, you’re not going to get one,” he said.

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I think part of it was a callback to “The French Connection.”

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Yet, each callback has been costumed enough not to feel like a parody of a parody.

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The film is a narrative retread of its predecessor, packed to the brim with callbacks and cameos that seem intended to spark a brief conversation online before burning out entirely, not unlike most Netflix originals.

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The script works in as many callbacks as possible: spooky mannequins under plastic sheeting, tacky parade floats with giant fiberglass clams, Hewitt hollering her memorable line: “What are you waiting for?”

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