roll call

noun

1. the calling of a list of names, as of soldiers or students, for checking attendance.

2. a military signal for this, as one given by a drum.

3. a voting process, especially in the U.S. Congress, in which legislators are called on by name and allowed either to cast their vote or to abstain.

roll call

noun

1. the reading aloud of an official list of names, those present responding when their names are read out

2. the time or signal for such a reading

Word History and Origins

Origin of roll call¹

First recorded in 1765–75

Example Sentences

After conducting a roll call at the evacuation center, facility staff realized that two residents were unaccounted for and alerted the Sheriff’s Department, the report said.

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Eastern on Wednesday, and a roll call could be tight.

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Republicans gave Democrats a promise to hold a roll call vote on extending the subsidies, which passed in 2021 with no GOP support.

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Republicans are wise to decline to pay the ransom—and keep taking roll calls that show they’re the reasonable party in Washington that wants to fund the troops and the government.

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Senate to urge streaming companies to begin offering customers the privately funded television service, which has provided nonpartisan gavel-to-gavel television coverage of congressional hearings and roll call votes for decades.

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