TCTAmerican EnglishAmE the sound you hear when you pick up the telephone that lets you know that you can make a call 〔电话的〕拨号音SYN British English dialling tone
Examples from the Corpus
dial tone• When he called at noon, her answeringmachineemitted a long series of beeps followed by a dial tone.• When he tried to call again, he could no longer get a dial tone.• You should have heard a dial tone, a ringing sound, then burbling tones.• Previous years were ok once you got the sought after dial tone.• He lifted it carefully and got no dial tone then saw the plungers were taped down.• You should be able to feel the dial toneburr. 2.• There was a click, but she stood listening to the dial tone, steadied by its urgentdrone.