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Synonyms

collect call

American  

noun

  1. a long-distance telephone call that is to be paid for by the person or station receiving it.

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.

“They got a phone right there that you get to use, but once again it’s a collect call from a payphone,” Harris, 35, said in an interview.

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

Each time you click a streaming radio channel, or download a podcast, it’s as though you’re making a collect call.

From Slate • Dec. 14, 2014

But when he made the collect call to his mother, she was having none of it.

From New York Times • Dec. 6, 2014

“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.