switchboard

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun One or more panels accommodating control switches, indicators, and other apparatus for operating electric circuits.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A device by means of which interchangeable connections can be established readily between the many circuits employed in systems of telegraphy, telephony, electric lighting, or electric-power distribution.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun an elctrical apparatus consisting predominantly of a panel on which are switches or other means of completing electrical circuits; -- used especially for the devices used in telephone exchanges. See sense 2.
• noun (Telephone) An apparatus containing switches by means of which a connection may be made from an incoming telephone line to any one of numerous outgoing lines. The switches may be either mechanical or electronic, and the switching action may be automatic, controlled by signals in the incoming call, or manual, controlled by a switchboard operator. In older style manual switchboards, the circuits were connected by the use of patchcords, inserted into plugs.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun telecommunications The electronic panel that is used to direct telephone calls to the desired recipient.
• noun electronics A device that directs electricity from one source to another.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun telephone central where circuits are completed with patchcords