- ton|ic
- ton|ic «TON ihk», noun, adjective.–n.1. a) a medicine or remedy supposed to stimulate or tone up the body. Cod-liver oil and sassafras tea are tonics. b) anything that gives strength, invigorates, or braces: »
The clean country air was a tonic to the tourists.
2. Music. the first note or fundamental tone of a scale; keynote.3. Phonetics, Obsolete. a voiced sound.4. U.S. flavored carbonated water: »celery tonic.
╂[< adjective]–adj.1. a) restoring to health and vigor; giving strength; bracing: »The mountain air is tonic.
b) Figurative. refreshing to the mind or spirit: »Since most bands playing Chicago at the time were of the Dixieland persuasion, to hear Lombardo's restrained melodies over the air was a strange and tonic experience for many residents of the region (New Yorker).
2. a) having to do with muscular tension. b) characterized by continuous contraction of the muscles: »a tonic convulsion.
3. Music. a) having to do with a tone or tones. b) of or based on a keynote: »a tonic chord.
4. Linguistics. a) of or having to do with tone or accent in speaking. b) (of a language) using tone distinctively.6. of or having to do with the effect of color, or of light and shade, in a picture.
Useful english dictionary. 2012.