landline

[ land-lahyn ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

a circuit of wire or cable connecting two ground locations.
a telecommunications line, service, or connection that uses wire running over land or underground to connect to a network:
telegraph and telephone landlines.
Also called land·line tel·e·phone [land, -lahyn , tel, -, uh, -fohn],. a telephone that is connected by wire to a network. Compare smartphone ( def ), dumbphone ( def ).
Citizens Band Radio Slang. a telephone.

First recorded in 1860–65; land + line ¹

Below that light was a small desk with a black landline telephone.

During one late-evening delivery, when he saw the office was mostly empty, he asked if he could use the landline.

On one day alone in 2006, a News International landline made 24 hacking calls to royal aides and rival journalists.

The move is an acknowledgment that the landline business is largely dead and the mobile phone has saturated the world.

Meanwhile, voice—i.e., landline telephone service—also seems to have peaked.

Browse