receiver

A receiver is the part that takes in a signal — or the official put in charge of a failed business. Two senses with nothing between them.

The signal sense covers radios, satellite boxes and the handset of a telephone, and picking up the receiver is a phrase that outlived the object. The insolvency sense is serious, since going into receivership means a company has been taken out of its owners' hands. There is a criminal sense too, since a receiver of stolen goods is the person who buys them on.