Telephone

6 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Telephone \Tel"e*phone\, v. t.
     To convey or announce by telephone.
     [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:



  Telephone \Tel"e*phone\, n. [Gr. ? far off + ? sound.] (Physics)
     An instrument for reproducing sounds, especially articulate
     speech, at a distance.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: The ordinary telephone consists essentially of a device
           by which currents of electricity, produced by sounds
           through the agency of certain mechanical devices and
           exactly corresponding in duration and intensity to the
           vibrations of the air which attend them, are
           transmitted to a distant station, and there, acting on
           suitable mechanism, reproduce similar sounds by
           repeating the vibrations. The necessary variations in
           the electrical currents are usually produced by means
           of a microphone attached to a thin diaphragm upon which
           the voice acts, and are intensified by means of an
           induction coil. In the magnetic telephone, or
           magneto-telephone, the diaphragm is of soft iron placed
           close to the pole of a magnet upon which is wound a
           coil of fine wire, and its vibrations produce
           corresponding vibrable currents in the wire by
           induction. The mechanical, or string, telephone is a
           device in which the voice or sound causes vibrations in
           a thin diaphragm, which are directly transmitted along
           a wire or string connecting it to a similar diaphragm
           at the remote station, thus reproducing the sound. It
           does not employ electricity.
           [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  telephone
       n 1: electronic equipment that converts sound into electrical
            signals that can be transmitted over distances and then
            converts received signals back into sounds; "I talked to
            him on the telephone" [syn: {phone}, {telephone set}]
       2: transmitting speech at a distance [syn: {telephony}]
       v : get or try to get into communication (with someone) by
           telephone; "I tried to call you all night"; "Take two
           aspirin and call me in the morning" [syn: {call}, {call
           up}, {phone}, {ring}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  38 Moby Thesaurus words for "telephone":
     blower, buzz, call, call box, call up, carbon telephone,
     coin telephone, desk telephone, dial, dial telephone, extension,
     give a ring, handset, hang up, hold the phone, horn, listen in,
     make a call, mouthpiece, pay station, phone, public telephone,
     push-button telephone, radiotelephone, receiver, ring, ring off,
     ring up, telephone booth, telephone engineering,
     telephone extension, telephone mechanics, telephone receiver,
     telephonics, telephony, transmitter, wall telephone,
     wireless telephone
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  TELEPHONE, n.  An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the
  advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance.
  
  

From U.S. Gazetteer (1990) [gazetteer]:

  Telephone, TX
    Zip code(s): 75488