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

Torn between calling up a friend and going on DND? —Usa Today, USA Today, 5 Jan. 2026

That legislation is ready to be called up for a vote. —Rachel Scott, ABC News, 3 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