/ ˈmesɪdʒ; NAmE / noun , verb
■ noun message (from sb) (to sb)
1.
a written or spoken piece of information, etc. that you send to sb or leave for sb when you cannot speak to them yourself :
There were no messages for me at the hotel.
I left a message on your answering machine.
Jenny's not here at the moment. Can I take a message?
We've had an urgent message saying that your father's ill.
a televised message from the President to the American people
Messages of support have been arriving from all over the country
an email message
I've been trying to get you all day—don't you ever listen to your messages?
—see also error message
2.
a piece of information sent in electronic form, for example by email or mobile phone / cellphone :
There were four messages in my inbox.
He sent me a message.
3.
[ usually sing. ] an important moral, social or political idea that a book, speech, etc. is trying to communicate :
a film with a strong religious message
The campaign is trying to get the message across to young people that drugs are dangerous.
4.
a piece of information that is sent from the brain to a part of the body, or from a part of the body to the brain :
The message arrives in your brain in a fraction of a second.
5.
messages [ pl. ] ( ScotE ) shopping :
to do the messages
to go for the messages
You can leave your messages (= the things that you have bought) here.
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IDIOMS
- get the message
- on / off message
■ verb
message sb (sth) to send a text message to sb :
[ vn ]
Fiona just messaged me.
[ vnn ]
Brian messaged me the news.
► mes·saging noun [ U ]:
a multimedia messaging service
picture messaging
••
WORD ORIGIN
Middle English : from Old French , based on Latin missus , past participle of mittere send.