verb (used with object)
- to bring back from memory; recollect; remember: Can you recall what she said?
- to call back; summon to return: The army recalled many veterans.
- to bring (one’s thoughts, attention, etc.) back to matters previously considered: He recalled his mind from pleasant daydreams to the dull task at hand.
- International Law. to summon back and withdraw the office from (a diplomat).
- to revoke or withdraw: to recall a promise.
- to revive.
noun
- an act of recalling.
- recollection; remembrance.
- the act or possibility of revoking something.
- the removal or the right of removal of a public official from office by a vote of the people taken upon petition of a specified number of the qualified electors.
- Also called callback. a summons by a manufacturer or other agency for the return of goods or a product already shipped to market or sold to consumers but discovered to be defective, contaminated, unsafe, or the like.
- a signal made by a vessel to recall one of its boats.
- a signal displayed to direct a racing yacht to sail across the starting line again.
verb (tr)
- (may take a clause as object) to bring back to mind; recollect; remember
- to order to return; call back permanently or temporarilyto recall an ambassador
- to revoke or take back
- to cause (one’s thoughts, attention, etc) to return from a reverie or digression
- poetic to restore or revive
noun
- the act of recalling or state of being recalled
- revocation or cancellation
- the ability to remember things; recollection
- military (esp formerly) a signal to call back troops, etc, usually a bugle callto sound the recall
- US the process by which elected officials may be deprived of office by popular vote
1580s, “to bring back by calling upon,” from re- “back, again” + call (v.); in some cases a loan-translation of Middle French rappeler (see repeal (v.)) or Latin revocare (see revoke). Sense of “bring back to memory” is from 1610s. Related: Recalled; recalling.
1650s, “act of recalling to mind,” from recall (v.). In U.S. politics, “removal of an elected official,” 1902.
v.
- To remember; recollect.
n.
- The ability to remember information or experiences.
see beyond recall.