noun
A telecommunication device (originally mechanical, and now electronic) used for two-way talking with another person (now often shortened to phone).
The receiver of such a device.
The game of Chinese whispers.
And since the spring of 1995, no game of telephone has ended without some Simpsons-loving smart-ass dropping “purple monkey dishwasher” into the chain.
Chinese whispers; a situation in which an initial message has been distorted and misunderstood by being passed from person to person.
In other words, Jones' career and life may have been derailed because a game of telephone went bad.
verb
To (attempt to) contact someone using a telephone.
“I came down like a wolf on the fold, didn’t I ? Why didn’t I telephone ? Strategy, my dear boy, strategy. This is a surprise attack, and I’d no wish that the garrison, forewarned, should escape. …”
Having completed their task, Fireman Page telephoned from a lineside box to the next signal cabin, briefly reported the incident and said that, as no high explosive had dropped and the track was safe, they proposed proceeding "at caution".
To convey (a message) via telephone.
He telephoned what he knew to his chief[.]
David telephoned his apologies to his mother.