Baby Bell
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of Baby Bell
An Americanism dating back to 1985–90
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He said that the argument for allowing cable company mergers was the same that allowed for the consolidation of the Baby Bell companies after the breakup of AT&T. “It’s a geographic extension,” he said.
From New York Times • Feb. 15, 2014
April 1997: SBC closes acquisition of a fellow Baby Bell, Pacific Telesis Group, for more than $16 billion.
From BusinessWeek • Mar. 21, 2011
It's ironic that at a telephone company someone can talk about being entrepreneurial, but we were starting our own Baby Bell.
From Washington Post • Dec. 5, 2010
What we know for sure, though, is that in the '90s every Baby Bell stock has outperformed AT&T. I'll take spin-offs over spin any day.
From Time Magazine Archive
VI It came upon us by degrees, We saw its shadow ere it fell— The knowledge that our God had sent His messenger for Baby Bell.
From The Home Book of Verse — Volume 1 by Stevenson, Burton Egbert
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
