n.
- a medicinal substance taken to give a feeling of vigour or well-being.
- something with an invigorating effect.
-
(also tonic water)
a carbonated soft drink with a bitter flavour, used as a mixer with gin or other spirits.
- Music the first note in a scale which, in conventional harmony, provides the keynote of a piece of music.
adj.
- Music relating to or denoting the first degree of a scale.
- Phonetics denoting or relating to the syllable within a tone group that has greatest prominence.
- Physiology relating to or restoring muscle tone.
▸of or denoting continuous muscular contraction.
Derivative
Etymology
C17: from Fr. tonique, from Gk tonikos ‘of or for stretching’, from tonos (see tone).
