burner phone

noun

: a prepaid cell phone that is not bound to a contract with a carrier (see carrier sense 7b) and is usually intended to be disposed of after use

She said he returned a short time later, got a lot of cash, then left again with the drugs and money after talking to an unidentified person on a burner phone.

—Kurt Helin

called also burner

Examples of burner phone in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The European Commission has issued burner phones and basic laptops to some of its staff flying into the United States for this spring’s IMF and World Bank meetings, the Financial Times reported Monday. —Maria Gracia Santillana Linares, Forbes.com, 17 Apr. 2025

So Coop enlists his old partner in crime Elena to volunteer her housekeeping services to Sam, and when Sam leaves to run errands, Elena lets Coop in to snoop for the burner phone. —Dave Nemetz, TVLine, 30 May 2025

In the lawyer’s pitch, as presented to the jury Friday, the Me & U singer’s street cred comes from having a burner phone to get in touch with short-term love Kid Cudi without Combs knowing. —Dominic Patten, Deadline, 27 June 2025

For all of these reasons, many privacy advocates do not recommend burner phones for the majority of people. —Andy Greenberg, Wired News, 16 June 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1996, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for burner phone

• acetone
• anglophone
• baritone
• bourguignon
• buspirone
• chaperon
• chaperone
• cobblestone
• collarbone
• cornerstone
• cortisone
• dictaphone