pocket dial

• pocket-dial

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pocket dial (plural pocket dials)

1. (idiomatic, informal) A situation in which one's cellphone makes a call from one's pocket when its buttons are inadvertently pressed.
   • 2013, Jess McCann, Was It Something I Said?: The Answer To All Your Dating Dilemmas, Skirt!, →ISBN, pages 7-8:

     But consider this first: How do you know that he really meant to call you and this wasn't just an accidental pocket dial?

   • 2013, Elle Fowler; Blair Fowler, Where Beauty Lies, St. Martin's Press, published 2013, →ISBN, page 60:

     It started off sounding like a pocket dial with incoherent noise and shouting […]

   • 2015, Abbi Glines, Hold On Tight, Simon Pulse, →ISBN, pages 95-96:

     My phone started ringing. I reached over and grabbed it, surprised to see Dewayne's name on the screen. Why would he be calling me at midnight on a Saturday?
     "Hello?" I said, almost expecting this to be a pocket dial.

2. (obsolete) A portable sundial of small size.

• (accidental call): butt dial

pocket dial (third-person singular simple present pocket dials, present participle (US) pocket dialing or (Commonwealth) pocket dialling, simple past and past participle (US) pocket dialed or (Commonwealth) pocket dialled)

1. (idiomatic, informal) To accidentally make a call this way.
   • 2012, Dudley Rutherford, God Has an App for That: Discover God's Solutions for the Major Issues of Life, Gospel Light, published 2012, →ISBN, page 115:

     I answered and quickly realized that the person had “pocket dialed” me— his phone had called mine unintentionally.

   • 2015, Alecia Whitaker, The Road to You‎, Poppy, published 2015, →ISBN:

     I laugh despite myself, wiping my face with my sleeve. "Dan, you called me."
     "Oh, Bird! Is that you?" he says, laughing. "I must have pocket dialed you."

   • 2015, Helen Kara, Creative Research Methods in the Social Sciences: A Practical Guide, Policy Press, published 2015, →ISBN, page 32:

     The navigational information his smartphone provided was not always accurate, and at times he would accidentally 'pocket dial' participants at inappropriate hours.

• butt dial