From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdialling toneˈdialling tone noun [countable] TCT British English the sound you hear when you pick up the telephone that lets you know that you can make a call SYN dial tone American English
Examples from the Corpus
dialling tone• Consider: the electricity has been cut off, the gas supply has stopped, the telephone has no dialling tone.• She jiggled the receiver and realised that there was no dialling tone.• He dialled the number again but this time there was no dialling tone - only silence stretching through the air-waves.• He grinned when he picked up the phone to check the dialling tone.• Lifted the receiver, listened to the dialling tone, put it down again. 