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 ( def 12 ).
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

Reitman’s promise to return this franchise “back” to fans validated the notion that Feig’s film—which included numerous callbacks to and cameos that tethered it to the original—was made for someone else.

From The Daily Beast

The book builds heavily on Psychopomp and Soft Sounds’ themes of loss, and it’s sprinkled with discreet callbacks to Zauner’s own songs.

From Vox

They called me the next year, and they were like, you can just go straight to callbacks.

From Ozy

A couple of them having callbacks and one of the final calls with Triple H in there, who is, he’s an incredibly huge WWE superstar for years, for 25 years and head of NXT.

From Ozy

In these moments, the book feels like a callback to writers like Henry David Thoreau, who idealized nature while being unwilling to think critically about the “unnatural”—politics, capitalism, other people.

From Outside Online

Having a criminal record can reduce the likelihood of getting a callback or job offer by 50 percent.

From The Daily Beast

The callback sketch that got the night's biggest response though was the return of the Kissing Family.

From The Daily Beast

Zamata was one of at least three women to get a callback later in the month.

From The Daily Beast

Megan lands a callback for a role in a play in Boston, which leads to yet another row between the two.

From The Daily Beast

In the callback audition I tried getting her to throw this water bottle at our casting director, and she said, ‘I won’t do that.

From The Daily Beast