calling card
4
3.9
- noun
- /ˈkɔːlɪŋ kɑːrd/
- Archaic
:
tarjeta telefónica
- He made a call with his calling card at 11:02 p.m.
- prepaid calling card
- buy a calling card
- calling card number
Examples
-
Many countries have calling cards that you can purchase at a kiosk when you arrive.
Blog text (20) -
To make a long-distance call, we used a prepaid calling card that we bought at the convenience store.
-
You pick up the phone, you call her on the company calling card.
Fiction book (2002) -
You can call directly from the hotel without a calling card, but know that the long distance charges are significantly more without the card.
Blog text (20) -
There are companies that offer these international calling cards, which provide huge savings over calling internationally using traditional methods.
Blog text (8) -
Using international telephone calling cards will not only save them money when they call home, but it will also generate the needed revenue for the student association.
Blog text (8) -
This is a 15-minute, prepaid calling card.
-
He picked up the telephone, got an outside line, gave the operator his AT&T calling card number, and dialed Professor Louisa Bourbonette.
Fiction book (1993) -
When traveling abroad, it's convenient to buy a calling card to save money on phone charges.
-
She inserted the calling card into the payphone and dialed her friend's number.
Synonyms
6
2.1
A small card you buy to pay for phone calls from public phones or when traveling
Surface Forms
Morphology
The figurative sense 'a distinctive feature' is only loosely linked to the parts: 'card' can denote an identifier (like a business/visiting card) and 'calling' relates to one's role, so there is a metaphorical extension from an identifying card to an identifying trait. A B1 learner who knows the literal words is likely to think of a physical/business card and would not reliably infer the abstract idiomatic meaning without prior exposure, so the relation is partial but not fully transparent.
Etymology
Calling card comes from small cards people used in public phones to pay for calls. The card was literally used to 'call', so today the name means a prepaid card for making telephone calls.