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Glite Dictionary
📞 To hack phones 📞 A phone hacker
to phreak

to phreak

1 9.9
To hack telephone systems to make free calls or learn how they work
  • verb
  • /friːk/
  • NSFW
: phreakear
  • He used special equipment to phreak into the telephone network and study how it worked.

Examples

  • He phreaked the system to make free calls.

  • Authorities warned that attempts to phreak modern digital systems are illegal and can be prosecuted.

  • In the 1980s, some teenagers learned how to phreak payphones to make free long-distance calls.

  • Don't phreak the phone lines!

  • He learned how to phreak phone lines to make free calls during the summer.

  • In the 1980s, many teenagers started to phreak to explore the telecommunications system's hidden features.

  • They used various tools to phreak the network and gain unauthorized access to a telephone system.

How Invasive

to phreak
  • NSFW
1 9.9
to break into
15 3.3
to hack
  • Texting
307 4.0
to probe
44 4.6
to explore
562 2.3

Surface Forms

phreak infinitive
phreaked past
phreaked past participle
phreaking present participle
phreaks third person singular

Etymology

Phreak as a verb comes from the same mix of phone and freak, which makes it easy to remember as an action. So to phreak is to hack or manipulate phone systems, often to make free calls or to learn how the network works.