telephone

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An instrument that converts voice and other sound signals into a form that can be transmitted to remote locations and that receives and reconverts waves into sound signals.
2. v. To speak with (a person) by telephone.
3. v. To initiate or make a telephone connection with; place a call to.
4. v. To transmit (a message, for example) by telephone.
5. v. To engage in communication by telephone.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n
2. An interurban telephone system.
3. n. An instrument or apparatus for the transmission of sound to a distant point. The word is generally restricted to devices for the transmission of articulate speech by the agency of electricity. The process consists essentially of the transmission of electric waves or impulses which agree in period and phase with atmospheric waves produced by sound. These in turn, by means of an electromagnet, cause vibrations of a plate or membrane, which agitate the air in a manner similar to the original disturbance, and thus reproduce the sound. As in telegraphy, a telephonic system includes a transmitter, a conducting wire, and a receiver. In the magneto-electric telephone the transmitter and receiver are identical. A thin iron disk is placed very near, but not quite touching, the end of a small bar of steel permanently magnetized, about which is wound a coil of thin insulated wire. One end of this wire is connected with the earth and the other with the line. The sound-waves produce vibrations in the iron disk, and as the magnetic field is thus subjected to rapid alterations, currents of electricity are induced, which are transmitted through the line. At the receiving end corresponding changes in the magnetism of the bar of the receiving instrument produce similar vibrations in the iron disk near it, which, in turn, produce sound-waves. When the Bell telephone is used as a transmitter, the sounds are directed toward the mouthpiece p, through a hole in the center of which the vibrations impinge on the diaphragm d. The consequent vibrations of the diaphragm close to the end of the magnet m induce currents in the coil c, which are transmitted to the line wires w through the terminals t. When the instrument is used as a receiver, the pulsatory currents passed through the coil c cause the diaphragm d to vibrate and give out sounds, which are heard by putting p to the ear. Better results, however, are obtained by the use of a different form of transmitter, many varieties of which have been invented. In that most commonly used the motions of the diaphragm cause variations in the strength of a current flowing from a battery through the primary wire of an induction-coil. These variations cause corresponding induced currents to flow through the secondary wire, which is connected with the line. They are generally due to variations of resistance resulting from variations in pressure in carbon, as in Edison's transmitter (called carbon telephone), or in surface contact when hard carbon is used, as in Blake's transmitter. In the latter (see cut) the sounds are directed to the mouthpiece p, which causes the vibrations of the air to impinge on the diaphragm d, on the back and at the center of which rests the point of a spring carrying a small spherical-shaped piece of platinum, s, which presses against a carbon block, b. The current, passing through the primary of the induction-coil i, passes through the contact between the platinum and the carbon, and variations in the resistance of this contact, due to the vibrations of the diaphragm, cause currents to be induced in the secondary of the coil i which are sent into the line circuit. Any form of microphone may be used as a telephone transmitter.
4. To communicate by telephone.

Wiktionary

1. n. An electronic device used for two-way talking with other people (often shortened to phone).
2. v. To contact someone by dialing his or her telephone number; to make someone's telephone ring using one's own telephone.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Physics) An instrument for reproducing sounds, especially articulate speech, at a distance.
2. v. To convey or announce by telephone.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. get or try to get into communication (with someone) by telephone
2. n. transmitting speech at a distance
3. n. electronic equipment that converts sound into electrical signals that can be transmitted over distances and then converts received signals back into sounds