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Also called cassette tape. a compact case containing a length of magnetic tape that runs between two small reels: used for recording or playback in a tape recorder or cassette deck and by some small computer systems to store programs and data.
Compare microcassette, minicassette.
an audio cassette or videocassette.
Photography. a lightproof metal or plastic container for a roll of film, having a single spool for supplying and rewinding the film.
Contemporary Examples

Halford, absent from court all morning, arrives late in the afternoon with a large, black double-deck and a cassette.
The Stacks: The Judas Priest Teen Suicide Trial Ivan Solotaroff June 27, 2014

Growing up in the 1990s, I watched Free to Be on VHS and listened to the songs on a cassette tape over and over again.
‘Free to Be…You and Me’ Did Not Emasculate Men Emily Shire March 10, 2014

cassette tapes, specifically finding them, are also a challenge.
Prisoners Get Cultural Fix with 8-Tracks and Bootleg Cassettes Daniel Genis August 17, 2014

His mentor, Imam Khomeini, saturated Iranian households with cassette tapes before his return from exile.
Use Islam to End the Iranian Regime Nazee Moinian June 23, 2009

During the ride, Jai Johany plays lacy Afro jazz on a cassette machine, frowning, saying nothing.
Stacks: Hitting the Note with the Allman Brothers Band Grover Lewis March 14, 2014

Not until we were all grown up did we know the other had been given a cassette tape too.
Peter Worthington: A Life Well Lived Justin Green May 22, 2013

Historical Examples

No beaux yeux, whether of the cassette or of one’s first love, ever subjugate a man so completely as the fascinations of play.
Beatrice Boville and Other Stories Ouida

The theft of the cassette, however, was a transaction which his enemies never suffered to be forgotten.
Contemporary Socialism John Rae

It had supplied each of them with a small box, cassette, containing a few articles of clothing.
The American Quarterly Review, No. 17, March 1831 Various

The cassette of St. Joseph, wherein were deposited the oboli for the poor, had long been emptied.
The Golden Dog William Kirby

noun

a plastic container for magnetic tape, as one inserted into a tape deck
(as modifier): a cassette recorder

(photog) another term for cartridge (sense 5)
(films) a container for film used to facilitate the loading of a camera or projector, esp when the film is used in the form of a loop
the injection of genes from one species into the fertilized egg of another species
n.

1793, “little box,” from French cassette, from Middle French casset, diminutive of Old North French casse “box” (see case (n.2)). Meaning “magnetic tape recorder cartridge” is from 1960.