Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CAR-TOUCH', n.¹ [Fr. cartouche; Sp. cartucho; Port. cartuxo; It. cartuccia, a cartridge, a bit of paper, from carta, paper.]

1. A case of wood, about three inches thick at the bottom, girt with marlin, holding about four hundred musket balls, and six or eight iron balls of a pound weight, to be fired out of a howitz, for defending a pass. A cartouch is sometimes made of a globular form, and filled with a ball of a pound weight; and sometimes for guns, being of a ball of a half or quarter of a pound weight, tied in the form of a bunch of grapes, on a tompion of wood and coated over. – Encyc.
2. A portable box for charges. [See Cartridge-box.]
3. A roll or scroll on the cornice of a column. – Coles.