recall

Formsrecalls, recalling, recalled

Pluralrecalls (some meanings)

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To call a past situation, event, or fact back to mind; to remember or recollect.

   She could still recall the exact words of the speech years later.

   He recalled the smell of the bakery from his childhood.

   Similarremember, recollect

   Oppositeforget

   Note

   Here the person remembering is the subject: "I hardly recall any occasion as a child when I was alone," Nelson Mandela writes in Long Walk to Freedom (1994). It pairs naturally with hardly and still, as in Tom Scholz's More Than a Feeling, where it follows still. When a thing is the subject instead, as with a locomotive that recalled nostalgic memories, the verb leans toward the "evoke" meaning.

2. 2
   SayREE-kawlUS/ˈɹiˌkɔl/UK/ˈɹiːkɔːl/

   noununcountable

   Memory; the capacity to remember.

   The witness's recall of that night was surprisingly detailed.

   Stress can weaken recall, making familiar names suddenly hard to retrieve.

   Similarmemory, recollection, remembrance, retention

   Note

   The noun of memory covers both the faculty and the act of remembering. A. G. Dunbar, in Trains Illustrated (1959), judges one little-known incident in a locomotive's life "worth recall." That compact phrase means worth remembering, and it treats recall as something an event can deserve rather than something a mind possesses.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To call in a defective product, asking or requiring that it be sent back.

   Regulators ordered the firm to recall the contaminated batch.

   The manufacturer recalled the heaters when reports of overheating emerged.

   Similarwithdraw

   Note

   Manufacturers and regulators own this sense: the company is the subject and the product is the object. Ramishah Maruf's 2024 report has Brassica Pharma "recalling several eye ointments" under a voluntary recall posted by the FDA. The verb and the noun appear in one sentence, and they are hard to separate in practice.

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act or fact of calling a person or thing back.

   The government announced the immediate recall of its ambassador after the embassy was attacked.

   Under the union contract, recalls of laid-off workers follow strict seniority.

   Similarwithdrawal

   Note

   The broad noun that the specialized recalls narrow down from. Its parts are plain, re- plus call, probably shaped on Latin revocāre and French rappeler. It pairs with the verb of summoning back and takes of before whatever is called back: the recall of a battalion. A defective product's return and an official's removal by petition have narrower nouns of their own. This one names the plain act.

5. 5
   SayREE-kawlUS/ˈɹiˌkɔl/UK/ˈɹiːkɔːl/

   nouncountable

   An official request for the return of a faulty product.

   The recall covered every unit shipped before March.

   News of the recall spread quickly among worried owners.

   Similarwithdrawal

   Note

   The noun can stand for the notice itself and even speak. In Ramishah Maruf's 2024 report, "The recall said that no injuries… have been reported." It also works as a modifier, as in recall campaign. As a count noun it names each separate episode, so a careless maker can face several recalls.

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To summon someone back to a particular place, post, or station, or to bring them back there.

   The ministry recalled its ambassador after the dispute.

   Coaches can recall a player to the senior squad at any time.

   Similarsummon, withdraw

   Oppositedispatch

   Note

   Summoning back often runs in the passive, with to marking the destination: recalled to service, recalled to London. Sports reporting uses it for a player restored to a side. Phil McNulty, writing for BBC Sport in 2011, has Fernando Torres recalled in place of the suspended Didier Drogba. The person returns, but the decision belongs to someone else.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To retract a statement or other words, or to revoke an order that has been given.

   The author asked the publisher to recall the offending statement.

   Parliament recalled the decree within days of issuing it.

   Similarwithdraw, retract, revoke, recant, disavow

   Note

   The word's makeup shows plainly here: re- plus call, probably modeled on Latin revocāre and French rappeler, and on the native withcall, which survives as a synonym. To recall a statement or an order is to call it back after it has gone out. That same backward pull runs through summoning an envoy home and, later, through remembering.

8. 8
   verbUStransitive

   To remove an elected official from office through a petition and a direct popular vote.

   Activists organized a campaign to recall the school board members.

   Residents recalled the council member halfway through his term.

   Similaroust, remove, unseat

   Oppositeelect

   Note

   American political vocabulary, where voters rather than an employer do the calling back. The official is the object, and from office can follow. Nellie Bowles, writing in 2021, describes a movement to recall Mr. Newsom from office. Unlike summoning someone to a post, it ends a term instead of moving the person who holds it.

9. 9
   SayREE-kawlUS/ˈɹiˌkɔl/UK/ˈɹiːkɔːl/

   nounUSuncountable

   The right or procedure allowing a public official to be removed from office before the end of a term by a popular vote, triggered by a petition signed by a required number of qualified voters.

   The threat of recall kept the council responsive to its voters.

   Recall is available in fewer than half of the states.

   Note

   The procedure behind the verb for removing an official, treated as an institution as much as an event. Uncountable, it names the right itself (the threat of recall). As a modifier it builds terms like recall petition, the document whose signatures trigger the vote. The kind of officeholder can also be named, as in representative recall.

10. 10
    verbtransitive

    To bring someone back to or from a particular mental or physical state, activity, or condition.

    The cold water recalled him to full alertness.

    A familiar tune can recall a patient to memories thought lost.

    Similarrestore, return

11. 11
    verbtransitive

    To evoke something or be reminiscent of it; to hearken back to it.

    Her melodies recall the folk songs of an earlier century.

    The novel's tone recalls the great Russian writers.

    Similarevoke, echo, suggest, resemble

    Note

    Here an object or a sight does the reminding on our behalf. An optional to us can name who is reminded. Ronald M. Burrows, in The Discoveries In Crete (1907), writes of a palace whose wonders "recall to us so much that we have found in Crete." Like evoke, it points to a resemblance rather than to a real return.

12. 12
    verbtransitive or intransitive

    To call again; to summon or telephone at another time.

    The office promised to recall each applicant after lunch.

    She didn't answer, so he planned to recall later that evening.

    Note

    Here re- simply means "again," so this is the one verb sense with no backward movement in it. It works with or without an object: recall each applicant, or simply recall later. Because readers may hear "remember" first, call again is the safer phrasing wherever the context leaves any doubt.

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