speaking tube

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speaking tube

A tube used to convey the voice over a short distance, as from one part of a ship to another.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

speaking tube

(Telecommunications) a tube or pipe for conveying a person's voice from one room, area, or building to another

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

speak′ing tube`

a tube for conveying the voice over a somewhat limited distance, as from one part of a ship to another.

[1825–35]

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Noun

speaking tube - a tube for conveying the sound of a voice from one room to another

tube, tubing - conduit consisting of a long hollow object (usually cylindrical) used to hold and conduct objects or liquids or gases

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References in classic literature ?

It was of about the bigness of a lead pencil and thinking that it might be in the nature of a speaking tube I put my mouth to it and was about to call into it when a voice issued from it asking me whom I might be, where from, and the nature of my errand.

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Speaking tubes resembling snakes were tied by the heads to the back of the Assistant Commissioner's wooden arm-chair, and their gaping mouths seemed ready to bite his elbows.

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Using a concealed speaking tube in the wall, Jo can hear conversations above and develops affection for the family, especially the printer's son, Nathan.

Lee, Stacey. Downstairs Girl

Liverpool ironmongers Rowe Brothers, of Pall Mall, manufactured a combined electric doorbell and speaking tube - ideal for night callers.