sb. pl. nonce-wd. [f. TELEPHONE sb., after phonetics; or f. TELE- + PHONETICS.] The practice of using a telephone; also (quot. 1893) signalling by sounds.
1877. Daily News, 30 Nov., 5/1. The general public … must apparently be content for the present to indulge in telephonetics only between … 10 p.m. and 10 a.m.
1893. Church Q. Rev., Oct., 242. There was also what may be almost styled a code of telephonetics among the Benedictines, who understood what the Abbot meant when he jingled his spoons.
