CALLBACK Definition & Meaning

callback

Or call-back

[kawl-bak]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

an act of calling back.
a summoning of workers back to work after a layoff.
a summoning of an employee back to work after working hours, as for emergency business.
a request to a performer who has auditioned for a role, booking, or the like to return for another audition.
recall.
a return telephone call.
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

of or relating to a return telephone call.
Please leave a callback number.

verb phrase

to telephone (a person) who has called earlier.
Our staff will call you back within 24 hours.
to summon or bring back; recall.
He called back the messenger.
The actor was called back for a second audition.
to revoke; retract.
to call back an accusation.

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of callback¹

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

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

After years of growing peace, the attack was a callback to Colombia's most violent years, when cartel-ordered assassinations were a common occurrence.

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June returns to the Waterford home where she records her monologue, a callback to what we hear in the very first episode.

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The film turns 30 next year, after all; no one would’ve blinked at a winking callback, a recreated timpano moment, even just a nostalgic insert shot.

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It wasn’t until they both got a callback for the chemistry read that it clicked.

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It’s a callback to events fans will recognize that expands upon existing lore.

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callathump call back

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