White-telephone
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Characteristic of the Italian genre of film called white telephone; suggesting consequence-free lives of privilege. derogatory, often
"Astaire and Rogers were fortunate: they embodied the swing-music, white-telephone, streamlined era before the Second World War, when frivolousness wasn't decadent, and when adolescents dreamed that 'going out' was dressing up and becoming part of a beautiful world of top hats and silver lamé."
Example
More examples"Astaire and Rogers were fortunate: they embodied the swing-music, white-telephone, streamlined era before the Second World War, when frivolousness wasn't decadent, and when adolescents dreamed that 'going out' was dressing up and becoming part of a beautiful world of top hats and silver lamé."
Etymology
Adjective form of white telephone.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.