SWITCHBOARD • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Switchboard

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noun

switchboard n.

An elctrical apparatus consisting predominantly of a panel on which are switches or other means of completing electrical circuits; used especially for the devices used in telephone exchanges. See sense 2.

(Telephone) An apparatus containing switches by means of which a connection may be made from an incoming telephone line to any one of numerous outgoing lines. The switches may be either mechanical or electronic, and the switching action may be automatic, controlled by signals in the incoming call, or manual, controlled by a switchboard operator. In older style manual switchboards, the circuits were connected by the use of patchcords, inserted into plugs.

Synonyms: patchboard, plugboard, telephone exchange.

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Etymology of 'Switchboard'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Switchboard" Quotes from Famous Books

... the receiver and summoned the club central. Afterward Pietro, who took his turn at the switchboard when the day operator departed, spoke of the quiet curtness of ...

— Kenny • Leona Dalrymple

... always be the most terrible of nightmares. My first thought was of my family and, when I had been assigned to a room, I immediately asked the switchboard operator for a long-distance connection to my home in Rutherford. There was complete silence for a minute and I jangled the hook impatiently, my head throbbing with a thousand aches and pains. Then, to my surprise, the voice of ...

— Astounding Stories of Super-Science July 1930 • Various

Words linked to "Switchboard" : plugboard, telephone system, exchange, patchboard, phone system, telephone exchange