housephone

American

[hous-fohn] / ˈhaʊsˌfoʊn /

noun

a telephone, used for making calls within a hotel or apartment house, that does not have a direct line to an exchange and whose calls are routed through the building's switchboard.

Etymology

Origin of housephone

Example Sentences

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housephone

In the middle of it, the doorman called up on the housephone and asked if anybody was dancing up there.

From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023