cartridge

1. (firearms) The package consisting of the bullet, primer, and casing containing gunpowder; a round of ammunition.Examples: "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.broadly

3. (computing) A vessel which contains the ink 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.Examples: "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.Examples: "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."; "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[…]"; "Not as good, though, as the PolyStation. Looks like a first-generation PlayStation in a Nitendo 64 box. And even though that bit on top looks like it should take a disc, it actually uses something like a Super Nintendo cartridge."

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".obsolete