telephone pole
- noun
- /ˈtɛlɪˌfoʊn poʊl/
- Ahead of him are telephone poles and thin smiles of drooping power lines.
And as he's holding the camera and that telephone pole goes by, the the plane appears to be appears to be static in the air.
- And as he's holding the camera and that telephone pole goes by, the the plane appears to be appears to be static in the air.
- But a poster of a hostage on a telephone pole hurts them.
- So we get this big trail, we cross it, there's a telephone pole, salad goes up, hooks up the wiretap.
Examples
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I don't want to end up crashed against a telephone pole.
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During the storm, the telephone pole fell, causing a temporary disruption in communication.
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Back in the day, all we had was telephone poles.
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You see the telephone poles?
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No telephone poles or power lines.
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A cable runs from the rear of the van to a telephone pole.
Fiction book (2000) -
Beyond the fence, she saw a sign posted on a telephone pole.
Fiction book (1999) -
Guess what I found tacked on a telephone pole.
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I seen this small sign on a telephone pole say youth basketball sign-ups.
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As the lineman worked his way up the telephone pole, she saw his suntanned arms glisten with sweat.
Fiction book (2002)
Synonyms
A long thin stick used to support things or in sports
A long pole set upright in the ground to support or mark
A tall wooden or metal post that holds telephone wires above the ground
A tall pole that holds telephone or telegraph wires
How Tall
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a pole used to support telephone wires' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'telephone' (relating to telephone lines/devices) with 'pole' (a supporting stick). This noun+noun composition is a regular, cross-linguistic compounding pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Telephone pole comes from the clear picture of a tall pole that holds telephone 'wires' high above the ground. That's why the term means a tall pole used to carry telephone lines.