phone booth
42
1.5
- noun
- /foʊn buːθ/
- Archaic
:
cabina telefónica
- I made an important call while standing in a phone booth on the street.
- broken phone booth
And he would make people miss in a tight space in a phone booth, as we like to say.
- And he would make people miss in a tight space in a phone booth, as we like to say.
- And when I saw my husband crumple against the phone booth, that's when life really changed.
- OK, runs off, gets him a serious phone call from a phone booth.
- No, I was, I think actually, I don't know it it, it might not have been, but it was two guys in a small ass phone booth, bare knuckle boxing.
- And then, and then five days later he shows up fucking he finds a phone booth and calls his parents.
- But I want something cool like a, a tuk tuk or an Apple or I don't know, a phone booth or a broken submarine.
- Like Superman hops into a phone booth real fast DD and then suddenly, Oh no, the long sleeve.
- So back then you had these phone booths and on the camping, on the camping where we slept and with the group.
Examples
-
Let's get to a phone booth.
-
- Look, there's a phone booth right on the corner.
-
How long is this guy gonna be at the phone booth?
-
I am at a phone booth.
-
Get out of that phone booth!
-
I'm in a phone booth.
-
Go over there by the phone booths and wait... I'll come to you.
Fiction book (1997) -
There's a phone booth right outside.
-
There's a phone booth down by the baseball diamond.
-
She's in a phone booth off Route 173.
Synonyms
292
1.4
A small enclosed space where people sell things, give information, or vote
4
2.3
A small enclosed space in a public place with a phone for people to use
1
3.0
A small box on a street that holds a public phone
A small booth with a telephone that people use
A public booth with a phone for making calls
How Private
1
3.4
- Archaic
42
1.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and transparently derived from combining 'phone' (a device for calls) with 'booth' (an enclosed stall), i.e. a booth containing a phone for making calls. This noun–noun compounding pattern is productive and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Phone booth comes from the simple picture of a small booth that holds a phone; people stepped inside and closed the door to speak in 'private'. That's why it means 'a small structure with a public telephone where you can make private calls'.