beeper

77 6.7

A small electronic machine that makes a short sound to tell someone to call you

noun
/ˈbiːpər/

Archaic

: buscapersonas

Ensure that interruptions, such as beepers, telephone calls, and physical intrusions, do not occur.
phone or beeper
cell phone or beeper
telephone calls and beepers

You have to have a beeper be aware, OK, Be aware of right.

Examples

Can you hear the beeper signaling that you have a message?
There is a card in there with my beeper number; call me anytime day or night.

Fiction book (1999)
You turned your beeper off.

Face/Off (1997)
We pack our emergency room beeper and go back to the office.

Fiction book (1991)
Is this number a beeper?

For a Good Time, Call... (2012)
Can you hear the doctor's beeper?

Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997)
Frida's about to lie back on the bed when Mark's beeper goes off.

Fiction book (1999)
His beeper went off.

Melinda and Melinda (2004)
You have your beeper?

Home Alone 3 (1997)
Your beeper was beeping.

Death Becomes Her (1992)

Synonyms

pager

vsbeeper

Archaic

103 5.5

A small electronic device that receives messages and beeps or vibrates

uses only audible beeps and was common before mobile phones

How Alerting

siren

259 2.9

alarm clock

42 1.0

beeper

Archaic

77 6.7

mobile phone

58 1.0

Surface Forms

beeper singular

beepers plural

Morphology

beeper = beep (transparent) = beep + er

The agent/instrument suffix '-er' added to the verb 'beep' yields a device or person that beeps, which is directly inferable by learners.

Etymology

The word beeper comes from the sound beep and the ending -er meaning 'one that' or 'a thing that', the same ending you see in printer or speaker. So a beeper is literally a small device that makes a 'beep' to tell someone they are being paged or should call back, which is why it was common before mobile phones.