"telephone tag" meaning in English

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "telephone tag (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1998 August 17, Christine Gorman, “E-Mail Your Doctor”, in Time:",
          "text": "Playing telephone tag with your doctor is one of the most common—and frustrating—rituals of modern medicine. You phone...can't get past the receptionist...leave a message. Your doctor calls back while you're in a meeting...leaves a message. The amount of time wasted on both sides turns everybody sour.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A situation in which a person unsuccessfully attempts to contact another person by telephone and leaves a message instead, and in which the second person then unsuccessfully attempts to return the initial call and leaves a message for the first person, and so on as if the two are playing a game of tag in which the most recent person to have been left with a message is now designated as \"it\" (i.e. as the player now obliged to chase the other and to attempt anew to make contact)."
      ],
      "id": "en-telephone_tag-en-noun-6iKiid8v",
      "links": [
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ],
        [
          "unsuccessful",
          "unsuccessful"
        ],
        [
          "message",
          "message"
        ],
        [
          "game",
          "game"
        ],
        [
          "tag",
          "tag"
        ],
        [
          "it",
          "it"
        ],
        [
          "oblige",
          "oblige"
        ],
        [
          "anew",
          "anew"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A situation in which a person unsuccessfully attempts to contact another person by telephone and leaves a message instead, and in which the second person then unsuccessfully attempts to return the initial call and leaves a message for the first person, and so on as if the two are playing a game of tag in which the most recent person to have been left with a message is now designated as \"it\" (i.e. as the player now obliged to chase the other and to attempt anew to make contact)."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "phone tag"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-telephone tag.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/14/En-au-telephone_tag.ogg/En-au-telephone_tag.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/En-au-telephone_tag.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "telephone tag"
}

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "telephone tag (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1998 August 17, Christine Gorman, “E-Mail Your Doctor”, in Time:",
          "text": "Playing telephone tag with your doctor is one of the most common—and frustrating—rituals of modern medicine. You phone...can't get past the receptionist...leave a message. Your doctor calls back while you're in a meeting...leaves a message. The amount of time wasted on both sides turns everybody sour.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A situation in which a person unsuccessfully attempts to contact another person by telephone and leaves a message instead, and in which the second person then unsuccessfully attempts to return the initial call and leaves a message for the first person, and so on as if the two are playing a game of tag in which the most recent person to have been left with a message is now designated as \"it\" (i.e. as the player now obliged to chase the other and to attempt anew to make contact)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ],
        [
          "unsuccessful",
          "unsuccessful"
        ],
        [
          "message",
          "message"
        ],
        [
          "game",
          "game"
        ],
        [
          "tag",
          "tag"
        ],
        [
          "it",
          "it"
        ],
        [
          "oblige",
          "oblige"
        ],
        [
          "anew",
          "anew"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) A situation in which a person unsuccessfully attempts to contact another person by telephone and leaves a message instead, and in which the second person then unsuccessfully attempts to return the initial call and leaves a message for the first person, and so on as if the two are playing a game of tag in which the most recent person to have been left with a message is now designated as \"it\" (i.e. as the player now obliged to chase the other and to attempt anew to make contact)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-telephone tag.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/14/En-au-telephone_tag.ogg/En-au-telephone_tag.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/En-au-telephone_tag.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "phone tag"
    }
  ],
  "word": "telephone tag"
}