cartoonish
Britishadjective
Explanation
Something cartoonish is exaggerated and overly simplified, like your cartoonish drawing of a cat or a cartoonish movie villain. This adjective can mean "like a cartoon," as in the simple, unrealistic illustrations in a kid's book. It also describes things that are over-the-top and a bit silly: "Their cartoonish makeup looked fine onstage, but it's too much up close!" If the bad guy in a film grins evilly and twirls his mustache, most viewers will find him a little cartoonish. The word comes from cartoon, originally "a drawing on strong paper," from a root meaning "heavy paper."
Vocabulary lists containing cartoonish
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
More than one flopped backward in a cartoonish froth of sparks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
It’s so sneeringly wicked that it almost seems cartoonish, doesn’t it?
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026
"They're travelling at such pace that actually the riders' hair is blown back in quite an expressive cartoonish way, to show how fast they're moving".
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
Count on the ubiquitous “XX” that typically stand in for eyeballs on the Companion character and the artist’s other dark cartoonish creations.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
Dee sings, high-pitched and with plenty of extra cartoonish vibrato.
From "Ask the Passengers" by A.S. King
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
