dial
/dʌɪəl
/noun
1A face of a clock or watch that is marked to show units of time.The dial on your dive watch would send a Geiger counter into cardiac arrest....
- Although described as a clock, the time-piece element - the tiny watch dial in the uppermost section - is its least significant feature.
- When the watch dial is lit, the tick marks appear as lit jewels.
1.1A flat plate with a scale and pointer for showing measurements of weight, volume, or pressure.The old scale was analog, with a dial and a pointer that waggled a bit unless you stood perfectly still....
- Most of the children are weighed, the smallest kicking and screaming as they are slipped into bags and suspended from scales, the dial sometimes barely registering their existence.
- I stood on my new evil scales and the dial screamed 11 stone 7.
1.2A disc with numbered finger holes on a telephone, rotated a particular distance for each digit of the number being called.His finger swerves over the dial; the telephone is too slow....
- When Caligari refuses to let Jane retrieve her car the next morning, she tries to call for help, but there's a lock on the telephone dial.
- One shop had a telephone with a dial just like the one I remember us having when I was a kid.
1.3A plate or disc turned to select a setting on a radio, cooker, or other piece of equipment.Turn the film speed dial from the ASA of the film you are using to the next highest film speed....
- In disgust, Amy reaches over and twists the radio dial vigorously.
- So saying, he touched the transmit button, and slowly turned the tuning dial.
1.4British informal A person’s face: he must be one of the new batch—I haven’t seen his dial before
verb (dials, dialling, dialled; US dials, dialing, dialed) [with object]
Call (a telephone number) by turning a dial or using a keypad: she dialled 999 it took only a moment for Alistair to dial in the numbers on the telephone [no object]: company employees dial out from their office...
- The driver can dial telephone numbers directly by voice input or using controls on the steering wheel.
- Just like on an old-fashioned phone, you pickup your telephone and dial the number of the person you wish to contact.
- Grabbing the telephone and quickly dialing the phone number, he wondered why he hadn't thought of this sooner.
Synonyms
telephone, phone, phone up, call, call up;
place a call to, make a call to, give someone a call, get on the phone to, get someone on the phone;
British ring, ring up, give someone a ring
informal buzz, give someone a buzz
British informal give someone a bell, give someone a tinkle, get on the blower to
North American informal get someone on the horn
Phrasal verbs
dial something down
dial in (or into)
dial something in (or into)
be (or get) dialled in
dial up (or dial something up)
dial something up
Origin
Middle English (denoting a mariner's compass): from medieval Latin diale 'clock dial', based on Latin dies 'day'.
The earliest senses of dial were ‘a mariner's compass’, ‘sundial’, and ‘the face of a clock or watch’—all round objects marked out with gradations. The old slang meaning ‘a person's face’ would have been suggested by the fact that faces are roundish. The word's immediate source was medieval Latin diale ‘clock dial’, which came from Latin dies ‘day’, also the source of diary (late 16th century). See also clock