v. To place an unintended phone call by accidentally jostling, knocking, or applying pressure to a cell phone stored in a purse or handbag.
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.
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.
It's uncertain how many are pocket or purse dialed calls.
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.
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.