tapestry

American  

[tap-uh-stree] / ˈtæp ə stri /

noun

plural

tapestries

1. a fabric consisting of a warp upon which colored threads are woven by hand to produce a design, often pictorial, used for wall hangings, furniture coverings, etc.

2. a machine-woven reproduction of this.

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verb (used with object)

tapestried, tapestrying

1. to furnish, cover, or adorn with tapestry.

2. to represent or depict in a tapestry.

tapestry British  

/ ˈtæpɪstrɪ /

noun

1. a heavy ornamental fabric, often in the form of a picture, used for wall hangings, furnishings, etc, and made by weaving coloured threads into a fixed warp

2. another word for needlepoint

3. a colourful and complicated situation

   the rich tapestry of London life

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Other Word Forms

• tapestried adjective
• tapestry-like adjective
• tapestrylike adjective

Etymology

Origin of tapestry

1400–50; late Middle English tapst ( e ) ry, tapistry < Middle French tapisserie carpeting. See tapis, -ery

Example Sentences

There will likely be no vistas of forest canopy, no shaded glens with water cascading through a tapestry of conifers, pine sap spicing the morning air.

From Los Angeles Times

Test cricket is a rich tapestry, 2,615 parts and counting.

From BBC

Test cricket is a rich tapestry - no other sport has such a variance in conditions holding such influence over the outcome.

From BBC

Remarkably, the original tapestry contains just seven colours - light and dark blue, light and dark green, a dark turquoise, a red and a yellow.

From BBC

"You have an entire landscape of uncertainty and vulnerability and you have this 1,000-year-old tapestry of spells and medicines and occult knowledge that just has seeped into the Burmese consciousness."

From Barron's

Related Words

• drapery