3D printer

noun

variants or less commonly 3-D printer

plural 3D printers also 3-D printers

: a device used to manufacture objects by depositing material in successive layers according to a prescribed pattern or model : a machine used for 3D printing

That served to protect them for the next stage, in which they were mixed with plastic and used as feedstock in a 3D printer, which printed a model of the bunny.

—The Economist

Mr. Drumm … designed the Printrbot, a desktop 3-D printer kit. Like a number of other 3-D printers, it uses heated plastic—applied layer by layer to a heated bed by a glue-gun-like extruder—to turn designs created on a computer into real objects.

—Steven Kurutz

Examples of 3D printer in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

About 85 percent of the 110-foot-tall, two-stage vehicle is built using a massive 3D printer, which the company says could be used for a number of products and ultimately include manufacturing in space. —Christian Davenport, Washington Post, 23 Mar. 2023

But researchers at Columbia University in New York have created a 3D printer that makes cheesecake. —Mike Snider, USA TODAY, 21 Mar. 2023

The Makerspace has a 3D printer, laser cutter, computer numerical control machine and an Espresso Book Machine so aspiring authors can print their book. —Susan McFarland, Dallas News, 17 Mar. 2023

Yes, the same Carson who apparently does not know how recreating tons of Survivor puzzles on a 3D printer worked out for David Wright on Edge of Extinction. —Dalton Ross, EW.com, 9 Mar. 2023

Behind the table with the 3D printer, a whiteboard listed some of the world’s largest fashion corporations with production quantities next to them. —Alden Wicker, WIRED, 22 Feb. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1991, in the meaning defined above