Choose the correct meaning of the following phrase: Beck and call

CONCEPT: An idiom built from two words joined by 'and' (for example, beck and call, safe and sound) functions as one fixed unit whose meaning must be learned as a whole. The phrase does not add up from the separate dictionary meanings of its parts; the correct approach is to match the fixed unit to its established idiomatic sense rather than translating each word literally.

APPLICATION: In 'beck and call', 'beck' is an old word for a beckoning gesture or nod summoning someone, and 'call' is a verbal summons. Joined together, the fixed idiom 'at someone's beck and call' describes a person who must respond instantly to every gesture or command from another person, with no independence of action of their own. That sense of total subjection to another's command is exactly what 'under absolute control' expresses.

CROSS-CHECK (each option traced to its own separate idiom or literal sense):

• Came to nothing: the established sense of the separate idiom 'to come to nothing' (or 'came to naught') — an effort or plan that failed and produced no result, as in 'the plan came to nothing.'

• Under absolute control: the sense demonstrated above for 'beck and call' itself.

• Under all conditions: the sense carried by phrases such as 'at all costs' or 'come what may' — continuing regardless of circumstance.

• To rebuke: the sense of phrases such as 'to call someone to account' or 'to give someone a dressing-down' — to scold or criticize sharply.

Each distractor therefore names the meaning of a different fixed expression, while 'beck and call' itself carries the sense demonstrated in the application above: under absolute control.