pay phone
noun
: a usually coin-operated public telephone
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web Several times the chapters break during conversations, as though somebody forgot to put a dime in the pay phone. 
Ron Charles, Washington Post, 6 Sep. 2022 What percentage of that payoff pay phone scene in Monday's episode did the writers have planned out back in season 4? Zero percent planned. Dan Snierson, EW.com, 2 Aug. 2022 Meanwhile, the Surfer Boy Pizza gang—Eleven, Will, Mike, Jonathan, and Argyle—are trying (unsuccessfully) to book a flight via pay phone. Lauren Puckett-pope, ELLE, 2 July 2022 According to Greenberg, my dad got up to use the pay phone outside. Kristen Mcguiness, Rolling Stone, 7 Aug. 2022 In a world still decades away from cellphones, calling an ambulance meant finding a pay phone, dropping a dime, and searching through the yellow pages for an ambulance company. Paul Sisson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 July 2022 The Midtown street pay phone was the last of roughly 8,000 public phones that were still in use around the city as of March 2015, according to the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications. Ginger Adams Otis, WSJ, 23 May 2022 While the final pay phone will no longer be in service, it won't be forgotten. Jordan Mendoza, USA TODAY, 23 May 2022 But while the Times Square pay phone was billed as the last in New York City, this description isn’t entirely accurate, reports NPR’s Rachel Treisman. Jane Recker, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 June 2022 See More
Ron Charles, Washington Post, 6 Sep. 2022 What percentage of that payoff pay phone scene in Monday's episode did the writers have planned out back in season 4? Zero percent planned. Dan Snierson, EW.com, 2 Aug. 2022 Meanwhile, the Surfer Boy Pizza gang—Eleven, Will, Mike, Jonathan, and Argyle—are trying (unsuccessfully) to book a flight via pay phone. Lauren Puckett-pope, ELLE, 2 July 2022 According to Greenberg, my dad got up to use the pay phone outside. Kristen Mcguiness, Rolling Stone, 7 Aug. 2022 In a world still decades away from cellphones, calling an ambulance meant finding a pay phone, dropping a dime, and searching through the yellow pages for an ambulance company. Paul Sisson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 July 2022 The Midtown street pay phone was the last of roughly 8,000 public phones that were still in use around the city as of March 2015, according to the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications. Ginger Adams Otis, WSJ, 23 May 2022 While the final pay phone will no longer be in service, it won't be forgotten. Jordan Mendoza, USA TODAY, 23 May 2022 But while the Times Square pay phone was billed as the last in New York City, this description isn’t entirely accurate, reports NPR’s Rachel Treisman. Jane Recker, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 June 2022 See More Word History
First Known Use
1936, in the meaning defined above