The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Telephone \Tel"e*phone\, n. [Gr. ? far off + ? sound.] (Physics)
   An instrument for reproducing sounds, especially articulate
   speech, at a distance.
   [1913 Webster]

   Note: The ordinary telephone consists essentially of a device
         by which currents of electricity, produced by sounds
         through the agency of certain mechanical devices and
         exactly corresponding in duration and intensity to the
         vibrations of the air which attend them, are
         transmitted to a distant station, and there, acting on
         suitable mechanism, reproduce similar sounds by
         repeating the vibrations. The necessary variations in
         the electrical currents are usually produced by means
         of a microphone attached to a thin diaphragm upon which
         the voice acts, and are intensified by means of an
         induction coil. In the magnetic telephone, or
         magneto-telephone, the diaphragm is of soft iron placed
         close to the pole of a magnet upon which is wound a
         coil of fine wire, and its vibrations produce
         corresponding vibrable currents in the wire by
         induction. The mechanical, or string, telephone is a
         device in which the voice or sound causes vibrations in
         a thin diaphragm, which are directly transmitted along
         a wire or string connecting it to a similar diaphragm
         at the remote station, thus reproducing the sound. It
         does not employ electricity.
         [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Telephone \Tel"e*phone\, v. t.
   To convey or announce by telephone.
   [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

telephone
    n 1: electronic equipment that converts sound into electrical
         signals that can be transmitted over distances and then
         converts received signals back into sounds; "I talked to
         him on the telephone" [syn: telephone, phone,
         telephone set]
    2: transmitting speech at a distance [syn: telephone,
       telephony]
    v 1: get or try to get into communication (with someone) by
         telephone; "I tried to call you all night"; "Take two
         aspirin and call me in the morning" [syn: call,
         telephone, call up, phone, ring]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

38 Moby Thesaurus words for "telephone":
   blower, buzz, call, call box, call up, carbon telephone,
   coin telephone, desk telephone, dial, dial telephone, extension,
   give a ring, handset, hang up, hold the phone, horn, listen in,
   make a call, mouthpiece, pay station, phone, public telephone,
   push-button telephone, radiotelephone, receiver, ring, ring off,
   ring up, telephone booth, telephone engineering,
   telephone extension, telephone mechanics, telephone receiver,
   telephonics, telephony, transmitter, wall telephone,
   wireless telephone



The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906):

TELEPHONE, n.  An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the
advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance.