tonic

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An agent, such as a medication, that restores or increases body tone.
2. n. An invigorating, refreshing, or restorative agent or influence.
3. n. See tonic water.
4. n. Boston See soft drink.
5. n. Music The first note of a diatonic scale; the keynote.
6. n. Linguistics A tonic accent.
7. adj. Producing or stimulating physical, mental, or emotional vigor.
8. adj. Physiology Of, relating to, or producing tone or tonicity in muscles or tissue: a tonic reflex.
9. adj. Medicine Characterized by continuous tension or contraction of muscles: a tonic convulsion or spasm.
10. adj. Music Of or based on the keynote.
11. adj. Stressed, as a syllable; accented.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Characterized by distinctive tones. Same as toned, 2. See tone, 15.
2. Of or relating to tones or musical sounds.
3. Specifically, in music, of or pertaining to, or founded on, the key-note or tonic.
4. Of or pertaining to tension; increasing tension.
5. In medicine, increasing the strength or tone of the animal system; obviating the effects of weakness or debility, and restoring healthy functions; hence, bracing or invigorating to the mental or the moral nature.
6. n. In medicine, any remedy which improves the tone or vigor of the fibers of the stomach and bowels, or of the muscular fibers generally. Tonics may be said to be of two kinds, medicinal and nonmedicinal. Medicinal tonics act chiefly in two ways: either
7. n. In music, same as key-note. See also key, 7 .

Wiktionary

1. adj. physics, pathology Pertaining to tension, especially of muscles.
2. adj. Restorative, curative or invigorating.
3. n. A drink intended to restore or invigorate.
4. n. Tonic water.
5. n. US, Northeastern US Any of various carbonated, non-alcoholic beverages; soda pop.
6. n. figuratively Something that revitalises or reinvigorates.
7. adj. music Pertaining to the keynote of a composition.
8. adj. Pertaining to the accent or stress in a word or in speech.
9. n. music The first note of a scale.
10. n. music The triad built on the tonic note.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Of or relating to tones or sounds; specifically (Phon.), applied to, or distingshing, a speech sound made with tone unmixed and undimmed by obstruction, such sounds, namely, the vowels and diphthongs, being so called by Dr. James Rush (1833) “ from their forming the purest and most plastic material of intonation.”
2. adj. Of or pertaining to tension; increasing tension; hence, increasing strength.
3. adj. (Med.) Increasing strength, or the tone of the animal system; obviating the effects of debility, and restoring healthy functions.
4. adj. (Med.) Characterized by continuous muscular contraction.
5. n. (Phon.) A tonic element or letter; a vowel or a diphthong.
6. n. (Mus.) The key tone, or first tone of any scale.
7. n. (Med.) A medicine that increases the strength, and gives vigor of action to the system.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a sweet drink containing carbonated water and flavoring
2. n. lime- or lemon-flavored carbonated water containing quinine
3. adj. imparting vitality and energy
4. adj. employing variations in pitch to distinguish meanings of otherwise similar words
5. adj. used of syllables
6. adj. relating to or being the keynote of a major or minor scale
7. n. a medicine that strengthens and invigorates
8. adj. of or relating to or producing normal tone or tonus in muscles or tissue
9. n. (music) the first note of a diatonic scale