Telephone office without coins (8)
I believe the answer is:
exchange
'telephone office' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'without coins' is the wordplay.
'without' becomes 'ex' (Latin).
'coins' becomes 'change' (change can mean coins).
'ex'+'change'='EXCHANGE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for exchange that I've seen before include "Convert" , "Short conversation or argument" , "Brief argument" , "Barter; switch" , "truck" .)