call upon

call upon (someone or something)

1. To choose, request, obligate, order, or demand someone to do something. Yesterday the president called upon world leaders everywhere to promote open and fair trade between countries. He was called upon to give testimony in court.
2. To visit someone. I went to the East Coast last week to call upon my aunt.
3. To access or make use of some helpful resource; to draw on something. I had to call upon all of my experience to fix the situation. The company has such vast financial resources to call upon that they are all but impervious to outside threats.
See also: call, upon
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

call upon

v.
1. To order or require someone to do something: I call upon you to tell the truth.
2. To make a demand or a series of demands on something: Social institutions are often called upon to assist the poor.
3. To visit someone: I called upon an old friend when I was in New York.
4. To make use of some resource; draw on something: I knew the task would call upon my every resource.
See also: call, upon
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • call upon (someone or something)
  • prefer
  • prefer (someone or something) to (someone or something else)
  • prefer to
  • look for (someone or something) high and low
  • look for high and low
  • not hear of something
  • hear of
  • hear of (someone or something)
  • choose from (people or things)
References in periodicals archive
It says given the geographical diversity of the OIC member states, emphasis be given on coordination and linkages at intra-regional level and call upon multilateral agencies such as the International Finance Corporation, to assist in developing the linkages between country and regional based banks.
Private sector's support is key for Islamic cooperation
I call upon the University to strengthen this linkage and extend it to various institutes of science and technology in the region.
'Let Nagaland University innovation exhibition be beginning of a festival of innovations in our country': Mukherjee
It leaves Knowle and Dorridge to call upon their fourth wicketkeeping choice Jake Sammons when they entertain Shropshire side Shifnal tomorrow.
K&D keep getting handed unlucky breaks behind stumps
They will pay handsomely, as an insurance policy, even during times when it seems that the grid is very stable and will likely not call upon your facility to curtail the load that was bid in.
No big secret to reducing costs
Getting broad audiences to commit to a vision of racial justice requires scripting new metaphors that call upon familiar examples of mutual success.
Playing the game of race: Hunter Cutting tries out a new metaphor for understanding the rules and systems of racial inequality
"Research has shown that teachers tend to call upon boys more in class, partly because time is tight and teachers need to move the lessons along," MacDonald says.
TIMSS: gender inequities still exist. [Third International Mathematics and Science Study]
The Administration surely likes the fact that it can call upon the IMF and the World Bank to do its bidding on one project after another without strong limits on the roles of these institutions.
Glorifying Mediocrity
The modern rehabilitation professional knows the community as a viable network of resources the consumer may call upon for specific services.
Community resource utilization in rehabilitation: the shape of the future
'We also call upon the United Nations to take the lead, which it must under its mandate, in stopping immediately the genocide of Rohingya Muslims by Myanmar,' the resolution added.
Cabinet condemns genocide of Rohingya Muslims; calls for immediate steps to stop atrocities