Wiktionary

recall

See also: re-call

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From re- ‎ call, probably modelled on Latin revocāre, French rappeler, English withcall.

Pronunciation

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Verb
Noun

Verb

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recall (third-person singular simple present recalls, present participle recalling, simple past and past participle recalled)

  1. (transitive) To withdraw, retract (one's words etc.); to revoke (an order). [from 16th c.]
    Synonyms: withcall; see also Thesaurus:recant
  2. (transitive) To call back, bring back or summon (someone) to a specific place, station etc. [from 16th c.]
    He was recalled to service after his retirement.
    She was recalled to London for the trial.
    • 2011 October 29, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 3 - 5 Arsenal”, in BBC Sport‎[1]:
      Fernando Torres was recalled in place of the suspended Didier Drogba and he was only denied a goal in the opening seconds by Laurent Koscielny's intervention - a moment that set the tone for game filled with attacking quality and littered with errors.
  3. (transitive, US politics) To remove an elected official through a petition and direct vote.
    • 2021 February 19, Nellie Bowles, “Hurt by Lockdowns, California’s Small Businesses Push to Recall Governor”, in The New York Times‎[2], →ISSN:
      That stop-start-stop has created a groundswell of anger toward Mr. Newsom, a Democrat in the third year of his first term, that is increasingly fueling a movement to recall him from office in one of the bluest of blue states.
  4. (transitive) To bring back (someone) to or from a particular mental or physical state, activity etc. [from 16th c.]
  5. (transitive) To call back (a situation, event etc.) to one's mind; to remember, recollect. [from 16th c.]
    • 1952 December, R. C. Riley, “By Rail to Kemp Town”, in Railway Magazine, page 836:
      Nevertheless, there were many passengers on the recent special trains to whom the immaculate little 80-year-old "Terrier," No. 32636, formerly Fenchurch, and its two L.B.S.C.R. coaches, recalled nostalgic memories of the old days on the line, when the trains were always spick and span; and days when the Kemp Town branch train was packed to capacity.
    • 2008 June 15, Vanessa Grigoriadis, “Up in Smoke”, in The New York Times‎[3]:
      He recalls that experience in a smooth, speedy story, “The Monster Mash,” but these days he’s not sure he liked it too much — the disembowelings, the coolers of brains, the stench of decomposing corpses (“the smell of job security,” as one pathologist puts it) terrify him.
    • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus, published 2010, page 10:
      In fact, I hardly recall any occasion as a child when I was alone.
    • 2011 October 15, Phil McNulty, “Liverpool 1 - 1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport‎[4]:
      Ferguson, perhaps recalling how United had been comprehensively outfought in the 3-1 defeat at Liverpool last season, opted for a side with a more pragmatic look with Phil Jones moved into a midfield role.
    • 2016, Leslie H. Abramson, Hitchcock & the Anxiety of Authorship:
      The scenework proves unsuccessful when Carmichael recalls not the source of her misandry but another episode of overacting, that of castratively biting off the moustache of an amorous man.
  6. (transitive) To hearken back to, evoke; to be reminiscent of.
    • 1907, Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries In Crete, page 6:
      "The twinkling of the dancers' feet" comes to us in the Odyssey as a memory from that palace of Alkinoos, whose wonders recall to us so much that we have found in Crete.
    • 1983 August 20, Ruth Borenstein, “Harassment, Bad Judgment Cited in Twin Cities Bust”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 6, page 6:
      The police had brought two civilians with them, including the 19-year-old son of one officer who helped to carry out the beer which was seized as evidence. Both were registered as ride alongs that night and their presence did not violate any laws, but Bouza saw this as another instance in which the officers showed "questionable judgment." This recalled an incident last February when three police officers brought their girlfriends along when raiding a gay bathhouse.
  7. (transitive, intransitive) To call again, to call another time. [from 17th c.]
  8. (transitive) To request or order the return of (a faulty product). [from 20th c.]

Translations

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Noun

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recall (countable and uncountable, plural recalls)

  1. The action or fact of calling someone or something back.
    1. Request of the return of a faulty product.
      recall campaign
    2. (chiefly US politics) The right or procedure by which a public official may be removed from office before the end of their term of office, by a vote of the people to be taken on the filing of a petition signed by a required number or percentage of qualified voters.
      recall petition
      representative recall
    3. (US politics) The right or procedure by which the decision of a court may be directly reversed or annulled by popular vote, as was advocated, in 1912, in the platform of the Progressive Party for certain cases involving the police power of the state.
  2. Memory; the ability to remember.
    • 1959 June, A. G. Dunbar, “The "Cardeans" of the Caledonian”, in Trains Illustrated, page 310:
      One little-known incident in No. 49's life is worth recall.
  3. (information retrieval, machine learning) The fraction of (all) relevant material that is returned by a search.
    Synonym: sensitivity
    precision and recall

Derived terms

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Translations

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Further reading

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Anagrams

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Portuguese

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Noun

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recall m (plural recalls)

  1. recall (return of faulty products)
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