pay phone

noun

: a usually coin-operated public telephone

Examples of pay phone in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Twin looked at the pay phone, then down at the dead boy. Literary Hub, 29 Jan. 2026 Thompson was drunk and talking on a pay phone outside a liquor store, authorities said. CBS News, 28 Jan. 2026 For ordinary people, the physical paper is joining the pay phone, the cassette tape, the answering machine, the bank check, the sound of the internal combustion engine and the ivory-white pair of women’s gloves as objects whose disappearance marks the passage of time. Michael Weissenstein, Fortune, 28 Dec. 2025 Gwen’s dreams suggest some kind of connection between her and three of the Grabber’s victims, as well as her dead mom, who calls her from a pay phone at a Christian winter camp (run by Demián Bichir). Peter Debruge, Variety, 8 Oct. 2025 See All Example Sentences for pay phone

Word History

First Known Use

1936, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of pay phone was in 1936

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Pay phone.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pay%20phone. Accessed 30 Jan. 2026.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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