pay phone

noun

1. a public telephone requiring that the caller deposit coins or use a credit card to pay for a call.

Word History and Origins

Origin of pay phone¹

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

I went to a pay phone and called a Chrysler expert I knew about.

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He went to find a pay phone so he could call his loved ones and tell them he was OK.

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“You could make a chance contact at any pay phone, but the odds of reaching someone out in the desert are incredibly remote,” he said.

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Along a line of wooden power poles running to the horizon in both directions, 14 miles from the nearest paved road, a solitary pay phone beckons with the shrill sound of impatient civilization.

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On top of the pay phone perches a nude Barbie doll.

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