<B>callback, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) <DD><B> 1. </B>a summoning back of furloughed workers. <BR> <I>Ex. ... large-scale callbacks ... have bolstered the employment picture (Wall Street Journal).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a second, or an additional, meeting with a customer or client. <BR> <I>Ex. It takes four or five callbacks before a deal cooks (Newsweek).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>the recall of a product by its manufacturer to correct previously unnoticed defects. <BR> <I>Ex. Last month alone, automakers announced at least six callbacks involving more than 180,000 cars and trucks (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="callbell">
<B>call bell,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a small, usually stationary, bell used as a signal to summon an attendant or servant. </DL>
<A NAME="callboard">
<B>callboard, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the bulletin board in a theater, on which are posted the hours of rehearsal and other notices. </DL>
<A NAME="callbox">
<B>call box,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a telephone located outdoors in a box for use in emergencies or by a policeman reporting to headquarters. <DD><B> 2. </B>(British.) a telephone booth. <DD><B> 3. </B>a callboard in a theater, consisting of a frame or box and usually hung backstage. </DL>
<A NAME="callboy">
<B>callboy, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a bellboy, especially in a hotel or on a ship. <DD><B> 2. </B>a boy who calls actors from their dressing rooms when they are supposed to go on the stage. </DL>
<A NAME="callbutton">
<B>call button,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a push button or other device for ringing a call bell or sounding an alarm. </DL>
<A NAME="callchange">
<B>call change,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a method of bell ringing in which the ringers are told when to ring by a call from the conductor, or by following a written order. </DL>
<A NAME="calledstrike">
<B>called strike,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Baseball.) a pitch not swung at by the batter but declared a strike by the umpire. </DL>
<A NAME="callee">
<B>callee, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person who is called or called on. </DL>
<A NAME="callejon">
<B>callejon, </B>noun. pl., <B>-jones.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Spanish.) <DD><B> 1. </B>alley; lane. <DD><B> 2. </B>a narrow, fenced-off lane which encircles the arena of a bull ring. </DL>
<A NAME="caller">
<B>caller</B> (1), noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a person who makes a short visit. <BR> <I>Ex. The doctor said that the patient was now able to receive callers.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a person who calls the steps in a square dance or the like. <BR> <I>Ex. Elisha Keeler ... is one of the nation's best-known square dance callers (New Yorker).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>a person who calls. <DD><B> 4. </B>a person who sounds calls. <BR> <I>Ex. a bird caller.</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>a person who calls for a show of the hands in a poker game. <BR> <I>Ex. [He] drags down the pot with no callers and shows his hand (Atlantic).</I> </DL>
<B>call girl,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a prostitute who may be summoned by telephone. </DL>
<A NAME="calligrapher">
<B>calligrapher, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a person who writes by hand. <DD><B> 2. </B>a person who writes by hand beautifully; penman. <DD><B> 3a. </B>a person who professes the art of elegant penmanship. <DD><B> b. </B>a professional transcriber of manuscripts. </DL>
<A NAME="calligraphic">
<B>calligraphic, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> having to do with calligraphy. <BR> <I>Ex. It's primarily calligraphic, made up of quick squiggles and strokes of black pigment on a variedly colored background (New Yorker).</I> adv. <B>calligraphically.</B> </DL>
<B>calligraphy, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>handwriting. <DD><B> 2. </B>beautiful handwriting, particularly in Persian, Chinese, or Japanese characters. <BR> <I>Ex. Calligraphy, or the practice of writing as a decorative art, is reckoned a higher accomplishment in China than painting (New Yorker).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>abstract art somewhat resembling Oriental calligraphy. <BR> <I>Ex. Calligraphy, or expressive draftsmanship for its own sake, is the virtue of Charles Seliger's delicate oils, watercolors and drawings (New York Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="callin">
<B>call-in, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) a radio or television program in which listeners or viewers call the studio by telephone to ask questions, make comments, or the like. </DL>
<A NAME="calling">
<B>calling, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>occupation, profession, or trade. <BR> <I>Ex. He chose to follow the calling of a teacher, while his brother chose the army as his calling.</I> (SYN) vocation, career, business. <DD><B> 2. </B>an invitation, command, or summons. <BR> <I>Ex. the calling of the bells to prayer.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>a spiritual or divine summons to a special service or office; call. <BR> <I>Ex. He felt an inner calling to be a clergyman. Most galling problem of ministers ... was a sense of not living up to the calling (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="callingcard">
<B>calling card,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a small card with a person's name on it, used when paying a call on someone, in acknowledging or sending gifts, or the like; visiting card. </DL>
<A NAME="callingcrab">
<B>calling crab,</B> <B>=fiddler crab.</B></DL>
<A NAME="callinghare">
<B>calling hare,</B> <B>=pika.</B></DL>
<A NAME="callinpay">
<B>call-in pay,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) the payment received by a worker who has not been notified before he reports to work that there is no work available or that he has been put on another shift. </DL>
<A NAME="calliope">
<B>Calliope, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Greek Mythology.) the Muse of eloquence and heroic poetry. </DL>
<A NAME="calliope">
<B>calliope, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a musical instrument having a series of steam whistles played by pressing keys on a keyboard. </DL>
<A NAME="calliopehummingbird">
<B>calliope hummingbird,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a hummingbird of the western United States and Mexico, about three inches long, with a golden-green crown and back and a lilac patch at the throat. </DL>
<A NAME="calliopsis">
<B>calliopsis, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> any one of a number of annual species of coreopsis. </DL>
<B>Callisto, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>(Greek Legend.) a nymph whom Hera changed into a bear for being in love with Zeus. When Hera tried to kill the bear, Zeus put it into the sky, where it became Ursa Major. Callisto's son, Arcas, became Ursa Minor. <DD><B> 2. </B>the most distant of the four largest of the twelve satellites of Jupiter. <BR> <I>Ex. ... Ganymede and Callisto, of Jupiter's train, are bigger than the planet Mercury (Bernhard, Bennett, and Rice).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="callithumpian">
<B>callithumpian, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S. Dialect.) <DD><I>adj. </I> denoting or having to do with a noisy concert, characterized by beating of tin pans, blowing of horns, shouts, groans, and catcalls, usually given as a mock serenade. <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a callithumpian concert; charivari. <DD><B> 2. </B>a person who takes part in a callithumpian concert. </DL>
<A NAME="callletters">
<B>call letters,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the letters of the alphabet that serve to identify a radio or television station, such as WBBM in Chicago. </DL>
<A NAME="callloan">
<B>call loan,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a loan that must be paid back on demand. </DL>
<A NAME="callmarket">
<B>call market,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the market for call loans. </DL>
<A NAME="callmoney">
<B>call money,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> money borrowed that must be paid back on demand. <BR> <I>Ex. Call money is borrowed by brokers and dealers to purchase and carry inventories of securities (Wall Street Journal).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="callnote">
<B>call note,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the call or cry of a bird or other animal to its mate or its young. <BR> <I>Ex. ... the chirping call note of the gecko (Sir Richard Owen). The crossbills may also be detected by the sharp "gik, gik, gik" call note, heard among pine trees, spruce firs, larches, or other conifers (London Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="callnumber">
<B>call number,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a number put on a library book to enable the user to identify and find it. </DL>
<A NAME="callon">
<B>call-on, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (British.) a system of hiring longshoremen in which they line up for possible call by a foreman; shape-up. </DL>
<A NAME="callose">
<B>callose, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> an amorphous substance, a carbohydrate, found in cell walls. </DL>
<A NAME="callosity">
<B>callosity, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>pl. <B>-ties.</B> <B>=callus </B>(def. 1). <DD><B> 2. </B><I>no pl.</I> lack of feeling or sensitivity; hardness of heart. </DL>
<A NAME="callous">
<B>callous, </B>adjective, verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>having a callus; hard; hardened. <BR> <I>Ex. Going barefoot makes the bottoms of your feet callous.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) unfeeling; not sensitive. <BR> <I>Ex. Only a callous person can see suffering without trying to relieve it.</I> (SYN) insensible. <DD><I>v.t. </I> to harden or make callous. <BR> <I>Ex. Since Gorki wrote, two wars and a wave of sociological drama have calloused us to squalor (Punch).</I> adv. <B>callously.</B> noun <B>callousness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="calloused">
<B>calloused, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> made callous; hardened. </DL>
<A NAME="callout">
<B>call-out, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a summons into service or for some special duty or purpose. <BR> <I>Ex. an emergency crew's response to a call-out; a call-out of the National Guard.</I> </DL>
