Definition of "answering machine" [answering machine]

• A device for answering one's telephone and recording callers' messages. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "I tried Lucy from my last job, who would have loved to have seen me but had been ordered by her obstetrician to lie on her left side; I tried Ginny from my desktop publishing seminar and Athena from my Dukakis days; I tried Nayla from my sourdough workshop, whose answering machine thanked me for the good energy, then failed to beep."
• "The neon-pink phone next to the answering machine was a cordless, and I picked it up on my way to her room."
• "Anju went to an end table by the fireplace and looked at an answering machine next to a neon-pink phone."