call an audible

present singular third person calls an audible · participle present calling an audible · participle past called an audible · past called an audible

1. American footballTo change the play at the line of scrimmage by yelling out a new one.
2. USidiomaticTo change plans at the last minute in response to new information.

   We found this insurgency much more virile than we expected, so we called an audible.

   2004, Richard L. Armitage, Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations for 2005: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, One Hundred Eighth Congress, Second Session, Part 5: Iraq Reconstruction Program, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 10

   4 more examples

   Mr. Krosnick explained with the help of a football analogy. "If somebody called an audible, we'd be right there[…]It has always been that way. We never did that much planning. All the talk and analysis was intended to outline the parameters of our instincts."

   1997 October 29, James R. Oestreich, “Juilliard Quartet's Musical Chairs; Sounding Board for the New, Strings Attached to the Old”, in The New York Times

   "We will be calling audibles every time we come to the line," one participant recalls [Condoleezza Rice] saying to [Bush] then.

   2001 December 5, Jim Hoagland, “'Calling Audibles'”, in The Washington Post

   Based on that decoding process, we may need to call an audible and either fine-tune or change channels in an attempt to help teenagers decode our messages more accurately.

   2008, Doug Fields & Duffy Robbins, Speaking to Teenagers: How to Think About, Create, and Deliver Effective Messages, Zondervan/Youth Specialties, page 28

   I reflected on what must have been their instructions, and what would have been the consequences for them of not following them, or of calling an audible, not a concept known in the North Korean foreign ministry.

   2014, Christopher R. Hill, Outpost: Life on the Frontlines of American Diplomacy: A Memoir, Simon & Schuster, page 216