cartoon

n. [ F. carton (cf. It. cartone pasteboard, cartoon); fr. L. charta. See 1st card. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. A design or study drawn of the full size, to serve as a model for transferring or copying; -- used in the making of mosaics, tapestries, fresco pantings and the like; as, the cartoons of Raphael. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A large pictorial sketch, as in a journal or magazine; esp. a pictorial caricature; as, the cartoons of “Puck.” [ 1913 Webster ]

3. same as comic strip. [ PJC ]

4. a motion picture consisting of a series of frames, each being a photograph of a drawing rather than a frame produced by filming a scene of true action, and in which the objects are displaced slightly in succeeding frames so as to give the appearance of motion when projected as a motion picture on the screen. The types of characters portrayed in such films are often similar or identical to those in a comic strip. [ PJC ]