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definitions

message

[mes-ij]
noun
  1. a communication containing some information, news, advice, request, or the like, sent by messenger, telephone, email, or other means.
  2. an official communication, as from a chief executive to a legislative body: the president's message to Congress.
  3. Digital Technology. a post or reply on an online message board.
  4. the inspired utterance of a prophet or sage.
  5. the point, moral, or meaning of a gesture, utterance, novel, motion picture, etc.
  6. Computers. a warning, permission, etc., communicated by the system or software to the user: an error message; a message to allow blocked content.
verb (used without object)
  1. to send a message, especially an electronic message.
verb (used with object)
  1. to send (a person) a message.
  2. to send as a message.
Idioms
  1. get the message, Informal. to understand or comprehend, especially to infer the correct meaning from circumstances, hints, etc.: If we don't invite him to the party, maybe he'll get the message.

Origin of message

1250–1300; Middle English < Old French < Vulgar Latin *missāticum, equivalent to Latin miss(us) sent (past participle of mittere to send) + -āticum -age
Related formsin·ter·mes·sage, noun, adjective
Can be confusedmassage message
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
British Dictionary definitions for error message

error message

noun computing
  1. a message displayed on a visual display unit, printout, etc, indicating that an incorrect instruction has been given to the computer

message

noun
  1. a communication, usually brief, from one person or group to another
  2. an implicit meaning or moral, as in a work of art
  3. a formal communiqué
  4. an inspired communication of a prophet or religious leader
  5. a mission; errand
  6. (plural) Scot shoppinggoing for the messages
  7. get the message informal to understand what is meant
verb
  1. (tr) to send as a message, esp to signal (a plan, etc)

Word Origin for message

C13: from Old French, from Vulgar Latin missāticum (unattested) something sent, from Latin missus, past participle of mittere to send
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for error message

message

n.

c.1300, "communication transmitted via a messenger," from Old French message "message, news, tidings, embassy" (11c.), from Medieval Latin missaticum, from Latin missus "a sending away, sending, despatching; a throwing, hurling," noun use of past participle of mittere "to send" (see mission). The Latin word is glossed in Old English by ærende. Specific religious sense of "divinely inspired communication via a prophet" (1540s) led to transferred sense of "the broad meaning (of something)," first attested 1828. To get the message "understand" is from 1960.

message

v.

"to send messages," 1580s, from message (n.). Related: Messaged; messaging.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with error message

message

see get the message.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.