telephone answering machine
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of telephone answering machine
First recorded in 1960–65
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“I’m around somewhere, probably just counting my money,” the message on his telephone answering machine said.
From New York Times ● Jul. 15, 2022
He retained it even under provocation, when, in 2008, rowdy telephone answering machine messages were left for him by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross during the course of Brand’s BBC2 radio show.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 1, 2016
Lowerison returned from work to find a message on her telephone answering machine.
From Time Magazine Archive
The telephone answering machine subverts time: one leaves a surrogate self back in a little box at home, frozen in time, waiting to be roused by a ring: "Hello," one says, disembodied.
From Time Magazine Archive
She uses a caption decoder on her television, attends captioned theater performances and asks people to e-mail her messages rather than leave them on her telephone answering machine.
From Time Magazine Archive
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
