Other forms: toners
Toner is the powder a laser printer prints with. Replace the toner, a toner cartridge, low on toner.
It is a fine plastic powder rather than ink, charged and attracted to the drum where the image is, then fused onto the paper by heat — which is why a page from a laser printer comes out warm. Toner is also a skincare liquid used after cleansing, which is a quite different product under the same name. Note toner cartridge; and that laser prints do not smudge because the plastic is melted on.
1nountonerThe powder a laser printer prints with.
“The printed pages were faint, so I knew the printer needed new toner.”
2nounskincareA skincare liquid used after cleansing.
“After washing her face, she wipes on a little toner with a cotton pad.”
toner is a printing powder.
Proto-Indo-European
*ten-
Ancient Greek
τόνος — strain, tension, pitch
Old French
ton
Latin
tonus — sound, tone
Middle English
ton
English
tone
English, today
toner
Built from
From tone + -er. tone comes from Middle English ton, tone, from Latin tonus (“sound, tone”) (possibly through Old French ton), from Ancient Greek τόνος (“strain, tension, pitch”), from τείνω (“to stretch”). a doublet of tune and ton and tonos and tonus.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA