cartoon

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• (US) IPA^(key): /kɑɹˈtuːn/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kɑːˈtuːn/
• Rhymes: -uːn

In British English first, from French carton (“sketch, cardboard, card”), from Italian cartone (“cardboard, carton, box”), augmentative of carta (“paper”), from Latin carta (“papyrus”).

A cartoon from the 13 December 1911 issue of the British satirical magazine Punch. It shows the Russian Bear sitting on the tail of the Persian Cat while the British Lion looks on, and represents a phase of The Great Game.

cartoon (plural cartoons)

1. (comics) A humorous drawing, often with a caption, or a strip of such drawings.
2. (comics) A drawing satirising current public figures.
3. (art) An artist's preliminary sketch.
4. (animation) An animated piece of film which is often but not exclusively humorous.
   • 12 July 2012, Sam Adams, AV Club Ice Age: Continental Drift

     The matter of whether the world needs a fourth Ice Age movie pales beside the question of why there were three before it, but Continental Drift feels less like an extension of a theatrical franchise than an episode of a middling TV cartoon, lolling around on territory that’s already been settled.

5. A diagram in a scientific concept.

• (humorous drawing or strip): comic strip, strip cartoon
• (satire of public figures): caricature, political cartoon

cartoon (third-person singular simple present cartoons, present participle cartooning, simple past and past participle cartooned)

1. (art, comics, animation) To draw a cartoon, a humorous drawing.
2. (art) To make a preliminary sketch.

• coranto

cartoon m (plural cartoons)

1. Alternative form of cartune