Other forms: cartons
A carton is a stiff card container for liquid or food. A carton of milk, an empty carton, a carton of juice.
The drinks kind is not card alone but layers of card, plastic and often foil, which is what keeps milk fresh and what makes recycling awkward. It is the same word as cartoon, from the Italian for a big sheet of card.
1nouncartonA stiff card container for liquid or food.
“There's a carton of milk in the fridge.”
carton is a container.
French carton comes from Italian cartone, a large sheet of card. Cartoon is the same word.
Italian
cartone
French
carton
English, today
carton
Borrowed from French carton, from Italian cartone. a doublet of cartoon.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA