phone bank

See also: phonebank

English

Alternative forms

• phonebank, phone-bank

Noun

phone bank (plural phone banks)

1. A collection of telephones within an organization such as a call center.
   • 1985 April 20, Christine Guilfoy, “Talkshow Cancels Editors of Lesbian Nuns”, in Gay Community News, page 1:

     When the hosts of "Good Day" offered viewers a chance to call in their comments, the number of calls overloaded the phone banks.

2. A banking institution that does business solely or mostly via telephone.
4. (politics) A political outreach event or strategy that involves making calls to potential voters by phone to get out the vote or collect voter data.
   • 2024 October 4, Katie Shepherd, “Obama backs Alsobrooks, says Senate control ‘could come down’ to Md.”, in The Washington Post‎^[1]:

     Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) hosted a phone bank for [Angela] Alsobrooks that same day, while Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) led canvassing to support her in Baltimore last week.

Verb

phone bank (third-person singular simple present phone banks, present participle phone banking, simple past and past participle phone banked)

1. (transitive, intransitive, politics) To engage in a phone bank (“political outreach event that involves making calls to potential voters by phone”).

   Hypernym: canvass