on the phone
idiom
1
: using a telephone to talk to someone
Can you see who's at the door? I'm on the phone.
I was on the phone with my sister until late last night.
2
British
: connected to a telephone system
How many households aren't on the phone?
Examples of on the phone in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
An inspector saw a worker making a pizza while talking on the phone.
—
Hannah Poukish, Sacramento Bee, 10 Jan. 2025
Bo Lillis then asked Young to talk on the phone the next day.
—Paul Du Quenoy, Newsweek, 9 Jan. 2025
Katie Abraham was talking on the phone and sitting on the front porch steps of her house in Columbia just before 11 p.m. Saturday when the car came speeding down her street and crashed into her house.
—Saman Shafiq, USA TODAY, 8 Jan. 2025
Handy-Jones and her son, who’d moved to St. Paul from suburban Chicago, would talk on the phone for hours.
—Mara H. Gottfried, Twin Cities, 8 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for on the phone 
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Hannah Poukish, Sacramento Bee, 10 Jan. 2025
Bo Lillis then asked Young to talk on the phone the next day.
—Paul Du Quenoy, Newsweek, 9 Jan. 2025
Katie Abraham was talking on the phone and sitting on the front porch steps of her house in Columbia just before 11 p.m. Saturday when the car came speeding down her street and crashed into her house.
—Saman Shafiq, USA TODAY, 8 Jan. 2025
Handy-Jones and her son, who’d moved to St. Paul from suburban Chicago, would talk on the phone for hours.
—Mara H. Gottfried, Twin Cities, 8 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for on the phone
Dictionary Entries Near on the phone
Cite this Entry
“On the phone.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/on%20the%20phone. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.
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