pay phone

a public telephone requiring that the caller deposit coins or use a credit card to pay for a call.

Also called pay station.

Origin of pay phone

First recorded in 1935–40

They now learned that his real name was Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed and managed to pinpoint him as he made one of his payphone calls.

Bin Laden’s Life on the Run, Witnessed by Al Qaeda Child Bride |Michael Daly |July 10, 2013 |DAILY BEAST
Operatives figured out how to flash a message on the Jumbotron for him to find a payphone.

Inside the Other Situation Room |Daniel Stone |May 19, 2011 |DAILY BEAST
I was on a payphone, sitting on the floor in some abandoned corner of the hotel.

The Last Blowout |The Daily Beast |October 31, 2010 |DAILY BEAST
We walked into a drugstore and he dropped a nickel into a payphone, hunching the receiver between ear and shoulder.

Greener Than You Think |Ward Moore

I worried that there was probably a camera aimed at the payphone he'd used.

Little Brother |Cory Doctorow

payphone

/ (ˈpeɪˌfəʊn) /

a public telephone operated by coins or a phonecard