Definition of "recall"

recall

/ɹɪˈkɔːl/

verb
third-person singular simple present recalls, present participle recalling, simple past and past participle recalled
1. (transitive) To withdraw, retract (one's words etc.); to revoke (an order).
2. (transitive) To call back, bring back or summon (someone) to a specific place, station etc.
  Quotations
  Fernando Torres was recalled in place of the suspended Didier Drogba and he was only denied a goal in the opening seconds by Laurent Koscielny's intervention - a moment that set the tone for game filled with attacking quality and littered with errors.
  2011 October 29, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 3 - 5 Arsenal”, in BBC Sport‎
3. (transitive, US politics) To remove an elected official through a petition and direct vote.
  Quotations
  That stop-start-stop has created a groundswell of anger toward Mr. Newsom, a Democrat in the third year of his first term, that is increasingly fueling a movement to recall him from office in one of the bluest of blue states.
  2021 February 19, Nellie Bowles, “Hurt by Lockdowns, California’s Small Businesses Push to Recall Governor”, in The New York Times‎
4. (transitive) To bring back (someone) to or from a particular mental or physical state, activity etc.
5. (transitive) To call back (a situation, event etc.) to one's mind; to remember, recollect.
  Quotations
  In fact, I hardly recall any occasion as a child when I was alone.
  1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus, published 2010, page 10
6. (transitive, intransitive) To call again, to call another time.
7. (transitive) To request or order the return of (a faulty product).
noun
countable and uncountable, plural recalls
1. The action or fact of calling someone or something back.
  1. Request of the return of a faulty product.
  2. (chiefly US politics) The right or procedure by which a public official may be removed from office before the end of their term of office, by a vote of the people to be taken on the filing of a petition signed by a required number or percentage of qualified voters.
  3. (US politics) The right or procedure by which the decision of a court may be directly reversed or annulled by popular vote, as was advocated, in 1912, in the platform of the Progressive Party for certain cases involving the police power of the state.
2. Memory; the ability to remember.
  Quotations
  One little-known incident in No. 49's life is worth recall.
  1959 June, A. G. Dunbar, “The "Cardeans" of the Caledonian”, in Trains Illustrated, page 310
3. (information retrieval, machine learning) The fraction of (all) relevant material that is returned by a search.