cartoon

noun, often attributive car·toon \ kär-ˈtün \

|Updated on: 20 Aug 2018

Examples: cartoon in a Sentence

Definition of cartoon

1 : a preparatory design, drawing, or painting (as for a fresco)

2 a : a drawing intended as satire, caricature, or humor

a political cartoon

b : comic strip

3 : animated cartoon

4 : a ludicrously simplistic, unrealistic, or one-dimensional portrayal or version

the film's villain is an entertaining cartoon

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cartoon

verb

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cartooning

noun

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cartoonish

play \-ˈtü-nish\ adjective

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cartoonishly

adverb

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cartoonist

play \-ˈtü-nist\ noun

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cartoonlike

play \-ˈtün-ˌlīk\ adjective

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cartoony

play \-ˈtü-nē\ adjective

See cartoon defined for English-language learners

See cartoon defined for kids

Examples of cartoon in a Sentence

She enjoys reading the cartoons in the Sunday paper.
The kids are watching cartoons.

Recent Examples of cartoon from the Web

Halterman and Steigleman’s other shop, The Station, in the same building, operates as something of a cartoon version of a 1970s California biker clubhouse and sells t-shirts, souvenirs, psychedelic posters, records, and coffee.

— corey seymour, Vogue, "Santa Fe’s New Tequila-and-Mezcal Bar Is the Tall, Cool Drink of Americana You Need Now," 13 Apr. 2018
In the second floor of a sweltering warehouse, a pair of heads from Confederate soldier mascot costumes — topped with light gray hats, their wide-eyed cartoon faces sprouting bushy white mustaches — sat encased in clear plastic bags.

— lauren caruba, San Antonio Express-News, "Lee High School’s mountain of memories to be auctioned," 11 July 2018
Farmiga somehow manages to inject some real-world pathos into her dysfunctional cartoon of a character, especially in a sequence involving her ex-husband, a Sausalito crumbum played with appropriate oiliness by Bobby Cannavale.

— peter rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, "The cast outshines the material in road trip movie ‘Boundaries’," 22 June 2018
The New Yorker has put a big emphasis on luring subscribers with its reporting on politics, the arts and foreign affairs, as well as its cartoons.

— jeffrey a. trachtenberg, WSJ, "New Yorker Magazine Employees Push to Unionize," 6 June 2018
In this Valentine, please note the tall and leggy and naked cartoon versions of Julia and Paul.

— alex beggs, Bon Appetit, "Let These Julia Child Valentines Be a Small Joy In Your Crazy Week," 26 Apr. 2018
The game comes right up to the edge of addressing the real-world issues raised by its mind-controlling, cartoon version of Middle American neoreactionaries, only to stop just short of drawing direct parallels to its obvious inspirations.

— steven strom, Ars Technica, "Far Cry 5 review: Five steps back," 27 Mar. 2018
The network has extended the order of its half-hour animated series starring a cartoon version of Donald Trump with seven new episodes, set debut this summer.

— bryn elise sandberg, The Hollywood Reporter, "Showtime Orders More Episodes of ‘Our Cartoon President’," 8 Mar. 2018
That's the cartoon version of the question broadcasters addressed during the 49th annual Country Radio Seminar (CRS) Feb. 5-7 in Nashville.

— tom roland, Billboard, "Country Radio Seminar Recap: An Industry 'Up Against Anything and Everything' Urged to Get Smart About the Future," 13 Feb. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cartoon.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of cartoon

Italian cartone pasteboard, cartoon, augmentative of carta leaf of paper — more at card

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1671

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

cartoon Synonyms

Synonyms

delineation, drawing, sketch;

Related Words

contour, figure, outline, silhouette;

caricature, doodle, illustration;

depiction, image, likeness, portrait, representation;

engraving, etch, etching;

aquatint, charcoal, line drawing, pastel, watercolor;

blueprint;

CARTOON Defined for English Language Learners

cartoon

noun

Definition of cartoon for English Language Learners

: a drawing in a newspaper or magazine intended as a humorous comment on something
: a series of drawings that tell a story
: a film or television show made by photographing a series of drawings : an animated film or television show