printer

1. (printing) The operator of a printing press or the owner of a printing business; (metonymic) any printing business.Examples: "IMPRINTED at London in Fleteſtrete by Thomas Berthelet, printer to the kynges highnes, the ſeconde of July, the yere of our lorde. M. DXLV. Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum ſolum."; "The Court doth Declare, as formerly ſo now, That no Apprentices be taken into any Printing-houſe, otherwiſe than according to this Proportion following, (viz.) ever Maſter Printer that is, or hath been Maſter or Upper Warden of his Company, may have three Apprentices at one time and no more, and every Maſter-Printer that is of the Livery of his Company, may have two Apprentices at one time and no more, […]"; "[…] Pecuniary motives induced the first printers (from the large sums which were usually paid for manuscripts) to sell their works as such; so that printing was, for a period, as much the counterfeit as the substitute for writing, it being a facsimile of the most approved Scribes."

2. (computer hardware) A device, usually attached to a computer, used to print text or images onto paper; an analogous device capable of producing three-dimensional objects.Examples: "The use of the Hughes type printer is extending on the main circuits, where speed of transmission is a great object; but it is highly improbable that it will ever be adopted, except on main circuits."; "By the use of these keys in conjunction with the other keys, the operator has perfect control over the receiving printer at the distant station."; "For long distance messages, reports, etc., the use of the printer telegraph renders a highly satisfactory and efficient service, especially where the line circuits are derived through a composite or phantom circuit without the exclusive use of wires for this circuit. The Union Pacific recently installed a two-channel multiplex automatic printer on a simplexed circuit, thereby eliminating the necessity for at least one additional overland wire, and also speeding up the service and reducing the cost for each message."