telephone cardn.
/ˈtɛlᵻfəʊn ˌkɑːd/, U.S. /ˈtɛləˌfoʊn ˌkɑrd/ 1. Originally U.S. A card printed with an institutional or local telephone directory; a similar card listing the names and numbers of selected local services, businesses, etc., often distributed by a tradesperson or company as a promotional gift. Now rare.
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1881 7th Ann. Rep. Athens (Ohio) Asylum for Insane 1880 133 (table) 2,000 wash-lists..500 circular letters..100 telephone cards.
1886 Atchison (Kansas) Daily Champion 22 June Todd, the hustling coal rustler, is out with a new telephone card..just in time, for the telephone company was about to inflict another book on the public.
1898 Emporia (Kansas) Daily Gaz. 20 July The telephone company have issued a new telephone card.
1914 Financial Times 13 Jan. 8/6 The Liverpool and London and Globe Insurance Company has issued to its clients an office calendar..and a telephone card.
1953 Medicine Hat (Alberta) News 5 Oct. 2/2 There is no opposition to printing telephone cards as long as these cards give only new numbers and corrections.
2. A small card used to pay for telephone calls or to make them without charge, esp. from a public payphone; spec. (a) a card which allows the user to make telephone calls from any phone and charge the cost to a nominated telephone number (also attributive); (b) (now chiefly) a prepaid card (esp. a smart card) that allows the user to make telephone calls up to a specified value.Cf. calling card n. 2, phonecard n. at phone n.2 Compounds 2.
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society > communication > telecommunication > telegraphy or telephony > telephony > telephone equipment > [noun] > telephone > credit card for use with cardphone
telephone card1903
phonecard1981
1903 Westm. Budget 13 Mar. 12/2 Another innovation of the French telephone system consists in personal telephone-cards, which enable the possessor of a telephone of his own to use the public telephone free of charge on producing this card.
1945 Washington Post 8 Mar. 8/2 The First Call Home Fund..has reached a total of $14,632.44... In February..200 men took advantage of the free telephone cards.
1958 Daily Oklahoman 10 Mar. 18/2 What could be more helpful to a candidate for statewide office than a free telephone card or a generous stamp allowance?
1983 Financial Times 30 Mar. (Electronics in Banking Suppl.) p. vi French developments have centred round the ‘smart card’... Floric Schlumberger has an order for 250,000 telephone cards.
1993 N.Y. Times 28 Mar. (Travel section) 3/1 There are a number of steps to avoid having your telephone card number stolen.
2012 B. Freemantle Red Star Burning x. 97 Charlie..always called..from an untraceably anonymous, bought-for-cash telephone card, disposable when its charge value was exhausted.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1881