telephone message
- noun
- After checking my voicemail, I found a telephone message waiting for me.
- return telephone messages
- respond to telephone messages
- leave a telephone message
It's not mostly telephone calls, but they also do have some telephone calls that were left on on telephone messages.
- It's not mostly telephone calls, but they also do have some telephone calls that were left on on telephone messages.
Examples
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Lee did not respond to telephone messages left at his Palo Alto apartment.
Academic text (1999) -
Louise took a telephone message this morning.
Fiction book (1993) -
- Telephone message for you.
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I had a telephone message from him several months ago.
Fiction book (1993) -
At the desk, there was indeed a telephone message.
Fiction book (1990) -
Then I checked my telephone messages.
Fiction book (1992) -
I have a telephone message from Mr. Forester.
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As soon as I got your telephone message, I went to school and got Vicki.
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Mr. Bond, there's a telephone message for you.
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A telephone message by the same investigator stated that Morton's wife's credit card was recovered in San Antonio.
Blog text (27)
Synonyms
A short voice recording someone leaves on a phone when the person cannot answer
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a message conveyed by telephone' is directly and compositionally derived from 'telephone' (device for voice communication) + 'message' (a short communication). This is a regular noun–noun compound with a common cross-linguistic analogue, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Telephone message comes from the simple picture of a telephone carrying a spoken message to another person. If the person is not there, you 'leave' the words for them to hear later, so it means 'a message given by phone'.