call on
Idioms-
Also, call upon.
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Make a request, ask for, choose, as in We are calling upon you to run for chairman , or The teacher called on Joe to answer . [c. 1400]
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Pay a brief visit, as in The salesman said he'd call on me in the morning . Shakespeare had this usage in Antony and Cleopatra (1:4): “I'll call upon you ere you go to bed.” [Late 1500s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The State Department continues to call on Americans to reconsider travel to Venezuela due to widespread crime but in March it ended its blanket warning against any travel.
From Barron's • Apr. 30, 2026
Uber will announce first-quarter financial results and discuss them at a conference call on May 6.
From Barron's • Apr. 29, 2026
Alastair Cuthbert is employed by Devon and Cornwall Police as its coroner's services manager, and says having a team to call on to look again at cold cases is a "really useful resource".
From BBC • Apr. 29, 2026
It retains an underperform call on Fortescue, and cuts its price target by 5.7% to A$16.50/share.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 27, 2026
Despite everybody acting so nice the night before, nobody went to call on Grandpa and Miss Love—at least nobody that I heard of.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
