pay phone

American  

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of pay phone

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

JR Vansant, who lives with his mother in suburban Long Island, N.Y., turns penny-stock holdings into a fortune, using postal orders and calls from a school pay phone to conceal that he is still in sixth grade.

From The Wall Street Journal

He hurried down a dark road to a nearby café, hoping to use the pay phone to call his wife.

From Literature

He knew to call from a pay phone.

From Literature

I remember sad Bob Seger on a pay phone in a hallway talking to somebody — like, “I’m headed to Michigan, where I should be a god, but I’m opening for Bachman-Turner Overdrive.”

From Los Angeles Times

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

From The Wall Street Journal