carton

[ kahr-tn ]

noun

1. a cardboard or plastic box used typically for storage or shipping.
2. the amount a carton can hold.
3. the contents of a carton.
4. a cardboardlike substance consisting of chewed plant material often mixed with soil, made by certain insects for building nests.

verb (used with object)

1. to pack in a carton:

   to carton eggs for supermarket sales.

verb (used without object)

1. to make or form cardboard sheets into cartons.

carton

/ ˈkɑːtən /

noun

1. a cardboard box for containing goods
2. a container of waxed paper or plastic in which liquids, such as milk, are sold
3. shooting
   1. a white disc at the centre of a target
   2. a shot that hits this disc

verb

1. to enclose (goods) in a carton

Other Words From

• un·cartoned adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of carton¹

1780–90; < French < Italian cartone pasteboard; cartoon

Word History and Origins

Origin of carton¹

C19: from French, from Italian cartone pasteboard, from carta card ¹

Example Sentences

Welsh Labour MP Steve Witherden has apologised after being reproached for drinking milk from a carton in the House of Commons last week.

From BBC

The Associated Press reported that the recall includes more than 345,417 dozen cartons of eggs, which totals to approximately four million eggs.

From Salon

Seems to me that worrying how your milk cartons are arranged is a bit obsessive, but I am not here to judge.

From Los Angeles Times

California centers will now accept wine and liquor bottles — as well as pouches, boxes and cartons — for cash as part of the Beverage Container Recycling Program.

From Los Angeles Times

The perennially under-construction compound, with its “oleander … and old milk cartons … R. Crumb comics, empty tea and coffee mugs, and ashtrays,” was often inhabited, Moon writes, by naked strangers “cavorting or making candles.”

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• container
• crate
• packet