collect call
20
3.6
- noun
- /kəˈlɛkt kɔl/
- US
:
llamada por cobrar
- I need to make a collect call.
- make a collect call
- accept a collect call
- place a collect call
Well, I guess possibly you'd maybe collect calls would also be going to that that number, I guess I'm assuming because it's the same as a provider now.
- Well, I guess possibly you'd maybe collect calls would also be going to that that number, I guess I'm assuming because it's the same as a provider now.
Examples
-
Hi, I'd like to make a collect call to the United States.
-
Female operator on tape: "You have a collect call from Huntsville, Texas, from ..."
Fiction book (2002) -
You know how to make a collect call?
-
Could you make this a collect call, Operator?
-
Operator, collect call to New York.
-
I'd like to place a collect call to America, please.
-
I have a collect call from Carol.
Fiction book (1994) -
I have an emergency collect call from your son, Augusten.
-
Would you accept a collect call from Sara Matthews?
-
I received a collect call from my brother, and he was surprised I accepted the charges.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A time when you talk to someone by telephone
57
1.0
A time when you speak with someone by phone
Surface Forms
Morphology
The adjective 'collect' (indicating that payment is to be received from the recipient) combined with 'call' yields a straightforward compositional meaning: a telephone call for which the receiver pays. This is a common, cross-linguistic service-labeling pattern, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent meanings is likely to infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Collect call comes from old telephone practice when an operator would ask the person receiving the line to 'collect' the cost of the call. That simple image of asking someone to accept the bill explains why collect call means a call 'the receiver pays for'.