Car*toon" (?), n. [F. carton (cf. It. cartone pasteboard, cartoon); fr. L. charta. See 1st card.]

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.

2. A large pictorial sketch, as in a journal or magazine; esp. a pictorial caricature; as, the cartoons of "Puck."

• A humorous drawing often with a caption; a strip of such drawings (a comic strip or strip cartoon)
  
• A drawing satirising current public figures; a caricature
  
• An artist's preliminary sketch
  
• An animated cartoon