cartridge
Americannoun
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Also called cartouche. a cylindrical case of pasteboard, metal, or the like, for holding a complete charge of powder, and often also the bullet or the shot for a rifle, machine gun, or other small arm.
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a case containing any explosive charge, as for blasting.
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any small container for powder, liquid, or gas, made for ready insertion into some device or mechanism.
an ink cartridge for a pen.
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Also called magazine. Photography. a lightproof metal or plastic container for a roll of film, usually containing both the supply and take-up spools, as well as a pressure plate, for rapid loading without the necessity of threading the film.
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Audio. pickup.
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a flat, compact container enclosing an endless loop of audiotape, operated by inserting into a slot in a player.
noun
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a cylindrical, usually metal casing containing an explosive charge and often a bullet, for a rifle or other small arms
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a case for an explosive, such as a blasting charge
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an electromechanical transducer in the pick-up of a record player, usually either containing a piezoelectric crystal ( crystal cartridge ) or an electromagnet ( magnetic cartridge )
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a container for magnetic tape that is inserted into a tape deck in audio or video systems. It is about four times the size of a cassette
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Also called: cassette. magazine. photog a light-tight film container that enables a camera to be loaded and unloaded in normal light
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computing a removable unit in a printer which contains black or coloured ink
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computing a removable unit in a computer, such as an integrated circuit, containing software
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of cartridge
1570–80; earlier cartage, cartrage, alteration of cartouche
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.
Cartridge casings recovered near the Utah crime scene were matched through a federal database to an expended casing previously found during a search of Buzzard’s home in Vandenberg Village.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 26, 2025
In a statement to the Times, Federal Cartridge, a distributor of Lake City’s ammunition at the time of the Parkland shooting, condemned the “criminal misuse” of its products.
From Seattle Times • Nov. 12, 2023
Discarded 7.62 mm shell casings around the bar were stamped in 1988 and 1989 in the Klimovsk Specialized Ammunition Plant and the Novosibirsk Cartridge Plant in Russia.
From New York Times • Jun. 14, 2023
Neither is the Novosibirsk Cartridge Plant, an ammunition manufacturer that calls itself “one of the leading engineering enterprises of the military-industrial complex of Russia.”
From Reuters • Jul. 1, 2022
Cartridge pouches, powder horns, and guns had been left against the tavern.
From "The Fighting Ground" by Avi
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.
