Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a public telephone that requires pre-payment to operate, generally via the insertion of coins or a credit card

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

from pay + phone

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Examples

  • The payphone is the twenty-first century horse-trough.

    Boing Boing: December 29, 2002 - January 4, 2003 Archives 2002

  • Promptly at two, he called the payphone outside Bloomingdale’s.

    A STRANGER IS WATCHING MARY HIGGINS CLARK 1977

  • The payphone was the type that only took dollars for every call, and frequently did funky things like drop calls or simply not work or return any change.

    On Reliance on Technology 2008

  • Cavazos speaks English, Spanish, and French, and is inviting everyone to call the payphone using Skype for a quick chat.

    Alpha.CNET.com: Most recent posts 2009

  • These tenders would include services such as payphone installation, cleaning, gardening, pest control, office plant maintenance, window cleaning, construction and security.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2000

  • Prepaid services have been further adapted to offer mobile 'payphone' services.

    Mobile Africa 2009

  • Prepaid services have been further adapted to offer mobile 'payphone' services.

    Mobile Africa 2009

  • Prepaid services have been further adapted to offer mobile 'payphone' services.

    Mobile Africa 2009

  • "You could go around the world five or six times," Jobs says, "and then you could call the payphone next door.

    News 2011

  • Montgomery County police said Bernardo Paz Flores-Olvera, 32, called 911 from a payphone moments before midnight.

    Md. man allegedly kills wife Debbi Wilgoren 2011

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