collect call
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of collect call
First recorded in 1965–70
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.
“Here it is like 10 o’clock at night, who’s answering the phone? A collect call at that?”
From Los Angeles Times • May 17, 2020
A teaser for director Geno McDermott’s film opens with chilling audio of a collect call Hernandez made to his fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 20, 2019
At long last, my client was allowed to make a tearful, five-minute collect call to his wife, in which he confirmed that he was alive and that he would be deported the next day.
From Slate • Apr. 2, 2017
It has been almost two weeks, and he still will not even answer the phone, possibly a collect call from Stockholm.
From Washington Post • Oct. 27, 2016
“Operator, I want to make a collect call to Louis Gaither.”
From "One Crazy Summer" by Rita Williams-Garcia
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.
