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What is "dialling tone"

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
dialling tone
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Consider: the electricity has been cut off, the gas supply has stopped, the telephone has no dialling tone.
▪ He dialled the number again but this time there was no dialling tone - only silence stretching through the air-waves.
▪ He grinned when he picked up the phone to check the dialling tone.
▪ Lifted the receiver, listened to the dialling tone, put it down again.
▪ She jiggled the receiver and realised that there was no dialling tone.
Wiktionary
dialling tone

n. (context UK English) (alternative form of dial tone English)

Usage examples of "dialling tone".

The receiver was dropped back, leaving him with just the dialling tone, a sound like angry insects swarming that could turn into imaginary noises in the head if he didn't take a grip on himself.

I heard the dialling tone and could feel my shoulders sag with relief as the receiver at the other end, after relay through an hotel desk, was picked up almost immediately.

Morses hand flashed across the table and snatched the receiver, but he heard only the dull, quiet purr of the dialling tone.

She grabbed the phone beside her bed, and was grateful to hear the dialling tone.

Nobody speaks as he waits, the receiver pressed to his ear so that the absence of a dialling tone will not be heard.

The dialling tone told him that the phone was probably in working order, and keeping the instrument to his ear he turned round and looked up and down the road.