laser

Plurallasers

Formslasers, lasering, lasered

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A device that produces a coherent beam of light of a single wavelength.

   Engineers aligned the laser carefully before the precision-cutting run.

   Surgeons rely on a laser to make extremely fine incisions.

   Note

   Few everyday nouns wear their origins as an acronym so openly. The letters stand for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, which names the physics as well as the device. The word is countable for the instrument itself (a laser, two lasers) and uncountable for the technique, as in treated by laser or cut with laser.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The narrow, coherent beam of light emitted by a laser.

   The laser sliced cleanly through the fog in a perfectly straight line.

   Reflective surfaces scattered the laser across the entire room.

   Similarbeam

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To cut, destroy, or medically treat something using a laser.

   Dermatologists laser the damaged tissue to remove it.

   The technician lasered the fine engraving onto the steel plate.

   Note

   The verb often appears in the causative have something lasered, as in having one's eyes lasered to correct astigmatism. The patient arranges the treatment and someone else carries it out. The forms are regular, and the final r is not doubled: lasered, lasering.

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A printer that uses a laser to produce text and images on paper.

   The office laser churned out fifty pages a minute.

   She swapped the toner cartridge in the laser before the big print job.

   Similarprinter

   Note

   A clipped trade word: once laser printer was familiar, the second half could be dropped. The short form takes the same modifiers as the full phrase, so PC Mag in 2004 could complain that nearly every color laser is too big to share a desk with. It belongs to office and computing talk. Elsewhere, the full laser printer is clearer.

5. 5
   verbcolloquialtransitive

   To throw or kick something with laser-like speed and pinpoint precision.

   The quarterback lasered a throw between two defenders.

   He can laser the ball into the top corner from thirty yards out.

   Similarfire, rifle, drill, zip, whip

   Note

   Sportswriters favor this verb for a fast, flat, accurate ball. It often appears as a participle after the noun: Dave Perkins, in the Toronto Star in 2009, wrote of a pass lasered into the end zone. It is informal and admiring, suited to commentary and match reports rather than neutral description.

6. 6
   noununcountableabbreviationellipsis

   Ellipsis of laser hair removal.

   The clinic offers laser for both the face and the legs.

   After three sessions of laser, the hair grew back much finer.

   Note

   Clinic shorthand that treats the procedure as a substance. It is used only as an uncountable noun, so people book sessions of laser or have laser on the legs, never a laser. Without that context the word would point to the device itself. The clipped form therefore works best where hair removal is already the topic.

7. 7
   noununcountable

   A gum resin obtained from certain umbelliferous plants of the carrot family.

   Roman cooks prized laser as both a seasoning and a remedy.

   Traders carried laser across the Mediterranean for its medicinal value.

   Note

   An entirely separate word that only looks like the light-beam noun. It was borrowed directly from Latin laser and has no link to the modern acronym. Context keeps the two apart, because this one appears only in discussions of plants, resins and their uses.

8. 8
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A plant of the umbelliferous family that yields the gum resin called laser.

   Overharvesting drove the wild laser to near extinction in the region.

   Botanists combed the hills for any surviving laser.

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