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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

phreak en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • (Southern-England) audio
  • frēk
  • /fɹiːk/

Etymology

Blend of phone + freak.

Meanings

  1. (dated, slang) A person who engages in phone phreaking.
    • Joybubbles (the legal name of the former Joe Engressia since 1991), a blind genius with perfect pitch who accidentally found he could make free phone calls by whistling tones and went on to play a pivotal role in the 1970s subculture of “phone phreaks,” died on Aug. 8 in Minneapolis. 2007 August 20, Douglas Martin, “Joybubbles, 58, Peter Pan of Phone Hackers, Dies”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 12 Feb 2022:
    • Phreaks can max-out 911 systems just by siccing a bunch of computer-modems on them in tandem, dialling them over and over until they clog. 1992, Bruce Sterling, The Hacker Crackdown […] , Bantam Books, →ISBN:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
phreaks Number=Plur lexicographic

phreak en · VERB

Pronunciation

  • (Southern-England) audio
  • frēk
  • /fɹiːk/

Etymology

Blend of phone + freak.

Meanings

  1. (dated, intransitive, slang, transitive) To engage in phone phreaking.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
phreaking Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
phreaks Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
phreaked Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
phreaked Tense=Past lexicographic

Deriveds

phreaker