purse dial
v. To place an unintended phone call by accidentally jostling, knocking, or applying pressure to a cell phone stored in a purse or handbag.
Other Forms
Examples
2015
The pocket dial — sometimes called the purse dial, or referred to often more crassly as the “butt dial” — is clearly still alive and well, despite the well-intended cell phone manufacturers that give us lock keys.
—Jennifer Leggio, “Action and intention — tough cell phone privacy lessons from pocket dial,” KoolSpan, July 29, 2015
2014
Dispatchers have handled even more calls which were either abandoned, misdialed, hang ups, or reflected an unknown trouble.

It's uncertain how many are pocket or purse dialed calls.
—Desiree Finhert, “'Lock it before you pocket:' 911 pocket dials an ongoing problem in Nova Scotia,” Metro News Halifax, June 04, 2014
2012
But the otherwise dry and highly technical report included at least one new tidbit: accidental “pocket dial” or “purse dial” calls to 911, which can waste valuable resources, jumped from 31 percent of all calls in 2009 to 39 percent in 2011.
—David W. Chen, “Report Lists Many Flaws in Handling of 911 Calls,” The New York Times, May 04, 2012
2008 (earliest)
An inadvertent cellphone call initiated by pressure to the keypad in a cluttered purse, pocket, or other phone stowage place, often resulting in a call to a random contact or most recently dialed number.
—Dan Demichele, “purse dial,” Urban Dictionary, January 22, 2008
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