call-up

1 of 2

noun

ˈkȯl-ˌəp 

1

: an order to report for military service

2

: a baseball player brought up to a major league team from the minor leagues

call up

2 of 2

verb

called up; calling up; calls up

transitive verb

1

: to summon together (as for a united effort)

call up all his forces for the attack

2

: to bring to mind : evoke

3

: to summon before an authority

4

a

: to summon for active military duty

b

: to bring up from a minor league to a major league baseball team

5

: to bring forward for consideration or action

6

: to retrieve from the memory of a computer especially for display and user interaction

Examples of call-up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

The 22-year-old, who had his first international call-up last year, has had a mixed spell in Yorkshire, having started promisingly before a three-game ban after being sent off for a dangerous challenge in a 3-1 defeat by Barnsley at the end of August. —Elias Burke, New York Times, 6 Jan. 2026

Clay Holmes, Sean Manaea, Kodai Senga and David Peterson remain under contract, while rookies Nolan McLean, Brandon Sproat and Jonah Tong showed varying degrees of promise during their late-season call-ups. —Peter Sblendorio, New York Daily News, 6 Jan. 2026

Verb

What minor-league hitter, not already on the 40-man roster, has a shot at being called up this year? —Chandler Rome, New York Times, 12 Jan. 2026

Ville Husso turned aside 30 shots in his first game since being called up from AHL affiliate San Diego. —Oc Register, 9 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1916, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1523, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for call-up

• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup
• markup

Kids Definition

call-up

noun

ˈkȯ-ˌləp

: an order to report for military service