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
It has been bouncing people at an average rate of around 900 a month since 1984, when an antitrust decree forced it to get rid of its seven "Baby Bell" regional phone companies.
From Time Magazine Archive
Then she lisped forth,— "Miss Nett, Baby Bell tiss you."
From My Treasure by Handford, Thomas W.
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.
