dial
/ˈdaɪ.əl/ verb B1- To control or select something with a dial, or (figuratively) as if with a dial. · The lead guitarist for the rock band Spinal Tap dialed his amplifier to 11.· The president has recently dialled down the rhetoric.
- To select a number on a telephone, regardless of a physical dial. · In an emergency dial 999.
- To call (a person or organization) using a telephone.
- To use a dial or a telephone. · Please be careful when dialling.
- To initiate a connection to a remote computer service such as a database. · The application failed when attempting to dial the Postgres server, because there were too many open connections.
- To use a dial-up modem to connect a personal computer to the Internet. · I always check my guestbook when I dial, just in case anyone saw my Web site.
He/she/it dials · Past dialed · Past participle dialed · -ing form dialing
Verb forms
- Base form
- dial
- He/she/it
- dials
- Past
- dialed
- Past participle
- dialed
- -ing form
- dialing
Phrasal verbs and expressions
From the library
“Still it belongs to government, and I ought not to waste it; but, having received the signal that I might rest for an hour” (here he glanced at the sun-dial, for there was everything in the enclosure of Montlhéry, even a sun-dial), “and having ten minutes before me, and my strawberries being ripe, when a day longer—by-the-by, sir, do you think dormice eat them?”
“Sir,” said the gardener, glancing at the sun-dial, “the ten minutes are almost up; I must return to my post.
Other matches
Learn dial in real texts
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