message /mesˈij/

1. Any communication sent from one person to another
2. An errand
3. An official communication of a president, governor, etc, to a legislature or council
4. The teaching that a poet, sage, prophet, has to communicate to the world
5. An amount of digital information transmitted as a whole between a terminal and a computer, or between computers on a network (computing)
6. (usu in pl) domestic shopping, a journey for the purpose, or the goods bought (Scot)

1. To send as a message
2. To send a message to
3. To transmit as by signalling

To carry a message

messˈaging noun

Any form of electronic communication in which a message is sent directly to its destination, eg by mobile phone

messˈenger /-ən-jər/ noun

1. A person who brings a message
2. A person employed to carry messages and perform errands
3. A forerunner
4. A light scudding cloud preceding a storm
5. A small object sent along a line, as a paper up a kite string
6. The secretary-bird
7. A rope or chain connecting a cable with the capstan for heaving up the anchor
8. An officer who executes the summonses and other writs of the Court of Session and Court of Justiciary (usu called messˈenger-at-arms; Scots law)

To send by messenger

message board noun

A bulletin board (qv)

message box noun

A box that appears on the screen of a computer conveying information, eg about an error

messˈage-boy or messˈage-girl noun

An errand boy or girl

messˈage-stick noun (Aust)

A carved stick carried as identification by an Aboriginal messenger

message switching noun (computing)

A communication system in which data is transmitted between computers on a network as a whole and not split into packets (see packet switching under pack¹)

message unit noun (US)

A unit used in charging timed, eg long-distance, telephone calls

messenger RNA noun (biochemistry)

A short-lived, transient form of RNA which serves to carry genetic information from the DNA of the genes to the ribosomes where the requisite proteins are made (abbrev m-RNA)

messˈenger-wire noun

A wire supporting an overhead cable

get the message (slang)

To understand

king's or queen's messenger

An officer who carries official dispatches

shoot (or kill) the messenger

To attack the bearer of bad news rather than the source of it

• semeiotician
• semeioticians
• semeiotics
• semelparity
• semelparous
• sememe
• sememes
• semen
• semens
• semester
• semesterisation
• semesterization
• semesters
• semestral
• semestrial
• semi
• semi-
• semiangle
• semiangles
• semi-annual
• semi-annually
• semi-annular
• semi-aquatic
• semi-Arian
• semi-Arianism