phreak
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
Etymology
Origin of phreak
First recorded in 1970–75; altered spelling of freak 1 ( def. 6 ), copying ph- of phone 1
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.
See Examples For:
Everyone is his own cognitive hacker, his own potential phone phreak.
From New York Times ● Sep. 21, 2017
But the phone phreak prank that generated the most publicity and consternation occurred on November 10, 1974.
From Salon ● Feb. 16, 2013
Of course, Wozniak wasn’t the only phone phreak with a love of pranks.
From Salon ● Feb. 16, 2013
Swartz was too young to be a phone phreak like Tufte.
From Slate ● Feb. 1, 2013
“The captain” was Cap’n Crunch, and “the whistle” was the famous toy plastic whistle of phone phreak lore.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
True, he phreaked from her home office phone, but she had no idea how to hack or phreak.
From Underground by Dreyfus, Suelette
He had been on a phreaked call to Canada at the time and he hadn't bothered to hang up when the cops arrived.
From Underground by Dreyfus, Suelette
The golden age of phreaking was in the 1970s, when folks like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were selling phreaking starter kits in the University of California-Berkeley dorms.
From Slate ● Jun. 1, 2022
After he taught Apple's co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak the "phone phreaking" trick, they produced and sold the hardware to college students, and used the funds generated to launch their computer company.
From BBC ● Nov. 20, 2017
Modern phones are just computers sending data over strands of glass like every other computer, and while you can still totally hack them, it’s not really phreaking in the classical sense.
From The Verge ● Jul. 20, 2016
But he couldn’t get his mind off of blue boxes and phone phreaking.
From Salon ● Feb. 16, 2013
The phreaking methods he used to get onto the phone conference were his own business.
From Underground by Dreyfus, Suelette
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.
