call waiting

American  

noun

1. a telephone service feature whereby a person engaged in a telephone call is notified by a tone that a second call is being made to the same number, and is able to talk to either party while keeping the other on hold.

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Example Sentences

If we were lucky, we had call waiting.

From New York Times • Apr. 27, 2023

In July, First Direct faced complaints from customers about long call waiting times.

From BBC • Dec. 8, 2021

Nobody had cellphones at the time, and call waiting was still foreign to a lot of people.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 25, 2021

He lived in the Forest Hills neighborhood in Queens — he had grown up in the borough and graduated magna cum laude from Fordham — and did not have call waiting on his phone.

From Washington Post • Feb. 8, 2021

She holds the line until she is tempted to hang up, wondering all the while if her husband is trying to reach her from home, regretting not having call waiting.

From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri