Cartridge

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈkɑːtrɪdÊ’/
• US enPR: kärʹtrÄ­j, IPA: /ˈkÉ‘rtrɪdÊ’/

Origin

Corruption of French cartouche.

Full definition of cartridge

Noun

1. (firearms) The package consisting of the bullet, primer, and casing containing gunpowder; a round of ammunition (Cartridge (firearms)).
• 1907, w, The Dust of Conflict Chapter 7, Still, a dozen men with rifles, and cartridges to match, stayed behind when they filed through a white aldea lying silent amid the cane, and the Sin Verguenza swung into slightly quicker stride.
2. (by extension) A prefabricated subassembly that can be easily installed in or removed from a larger mechanism or replaced with another interchangeable subassembly.
3. (computing) A vessel which contains the ink (Ink cartridge) or toner () for a computer printer and can be easily replaced with another.
4. (computing) Magnetic tape storage, used for storing (backup) copies of data (Magnetic tape data storage).
• 1983, Helpline (in Sinclair User issue 21)The program generates a catalogue of the files on the cartridge selected by the user, reads the catalogue into memory and erases the cartridge copy, so that an up-to-date copy is always generated.
5. (computing) A removable enclosure containing read-only memory devices, used for rapid loading of software onto a home computer or video game console.
• 1981, Communication Outlook (volume 3)We would like to see someone market a low-power, text-to-speech cartridge that would mate with the Epson and use its internal battery pack.
• 2002, Video Game Bible, 1985-2002 (page 180)Nintendo made sure to loudly trumpet all of the advantages of the cartridge format, particularly the greatly reduced loading times and the sturdiness of the cartridges...
6. (obsolete) A small paper package, e.g. in an old book about making printer's type: After all the type has been cast: "The Boy will paper up each sort in a cartridge by itself".

Derived terms