collect calls
Recipient pays charges
Collect calls are telephone calls billed to the recipient rather than the caller.
Before cell phones, this was how you called home without coins for a pay phone: an operator would ask the person answering if they'd accept the charges.
She called collect from the bus station.
The practice has largely disappeared with mobile phones and flat-rate plans.
One who works machinery
- payphonePublic coin-operated telephone
- landlineStationary wired telephone
- receiverOne who accepts transmission
- dialingEntering a phone number
switchboard · area code · country code · long-distance · toll-free · direct dial · connection · telephone booth
Public coin-operated telephone
- phone boothEnclosed public telephone station
- 1980sFourth-to-last twentieth-century decade
- 1990sFinal twentieth-century decade
- childhoodLife's earliest phase
memories · operator · old-fashioned · vintage · retro · obsolete · rotary · coin-operated
Amounts owed or alleged
- billingCharging for services rendered
- paymentFulfilling a financial obligation
- tollFee for passage
- feePayment for service
surcharge · rate · tariff · invoice · cost · payer · phone bill · expensive
Confinement for offenders
- jailDetention facility
- incarcerationConfinement in jail
- inmateConfined facility resident
- militaryArmed forces collectively
deployment · overseas · abroad · emigrant · homesick · family · loved ones · detention
operator
One who works machinery
- payphonePublic coin-operated telephone
- landlineStationary wired telephone
- receiverOne who accepts transmission
dialing · switchboard · area code · country code · long-distance · toll-free · direct dial · connection · telephone booth · coin slot
payphone
Public coin-operated telephone
- phone boothEnclosed public telephone station
- 1980sFourth-to-last twentieth-century decade
- 1990sFinal twentieth-century decade
childhood · memories · operator · old-fashioned · vintage · retro · obsolete · rotary · coin-operated · answering machine
charges
Amounts owed or alleged
fee · surcharge · rate · tariff · invoice · cost · payer · phone bill · expensive · debt
prison
Confinement for offenders
- jailDetention facility
- incarcerationConfinement in jail
- inmateConfined facility resident
military · deployment · overseas · abroad · emigrant · homesick · family · loved ones · detention · boarding school
stranded
Left without means to leave
crisis · no money · stuck · help · roadside · hospital · accident · arrest · lifeline · rescue
- obsolete techfloppy disk, VHS, dial-up modem, cassette tape, floppy disks
- phone servicesvoicemail, phone number, area code, phone bill, phone plan
collect, call, calls, collected, collecting, collection, collections, collective, collectively