Meaning of first call | Babel Free

Definitions

Priority on the use of somebody or something, especially an actor if required in a production.

uncountable

Examples

“Fairbanks obviously had the power to dictate because his contract, and an amended one with Griffith, gave him first call on me as a dentist while Griffith retained first call on my services as an actor.”

“In these conditions, however, you must be sensitive to the actor's need to do other work: you've got to let them go up for auditions and earn money in other ways, and only the most megalomaniac director thinks that he has 'first call' on his actors' time.”

“Consequently, Harper argues, 'costume film-makers in Britain no longer had first call on their own classic novelists. […]”

CEFR level