canvas
[kan-vuh s]
- a closely woven, heavy cloth of cotton, hemp, or linen, used for tents, sails, etc.
- a piece of this or similar material on which a painting is made.
- a painting on canvas.
- a tent, or tents collectively.
- sailcloth.
- sails collectively.
- any fabric of linen, cotton, or hemp of a coarse loose weave used as a foundation for embroidery stitches, interlining, etc.
- the floor of a boxing ring traditionally consisting of a canvas covering stretched over a mat.
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- (initial capital letter) the brand name of an open-source learning management system, launched in 2011.
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- under canvas,
- Nautical.with set sails.
- in tents; in the field: the troops under canvas.
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Origin of canvas
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for canvas
Contemporary Examples
The sounds she performs from the violins on canvas replicate her idea of sounds found in the cosmos.
Picasso worked from the photograph to create the blocked, jagged shapes he painted on canvas.
It tries to create a canvas on which people project and create their own fears.
The movement was a willful, angry child, though, exploding away from “art” and from the canvas in particular.
The Life and Art of Radical Provocateur—and Commune Leader—Otto MuehlAnthony Haden-Guest
September 22, 2014
“I was really interested in adding fabrics onto my canvas,” she said, which inspired her to attend sewing camp.
New York Fashion Week's Teen Sensation: Isabella Rose Taylor, 13, Stages A Sartorial RevolutionJustin Jones
September 6, 2014
Historical Examples
Last of all, there was the explosion, the carrying off of the coin in its canvas sacks to the horses.
Way of the LawlessMax Brand
Kingozi dropped into the canvas chair, fumbled for a pipe, filled and lighted it.
The Leopard WomanStewart Edward White
All else on his canvas is subordinated to the grim image of the colossal Puritan.
The Works of Whittier, Volume VI (of VII)John Greenleaf Whittier
That scrubby menagerie had not gained in dignity from its transference to canvas walls.
Meadow GrassAlice Brown
The chariots, some of them still hooded in canvas, were very small and tarnished.
Meadow GrassAlice Brown
canvas
- a heavy durable cloth made of cotton, hemp, or jute, used for sails, tents, etc
- (as modifier)a canvas bag
- a piece of canvas or a similar material on which a painting is done, usually in oils
- a painting on this material, esp in oils
- a tent or tents collectively
- nautical any cloth of which sails are made
- nautical the sails of a vessel collectively
- any coarse loosely woven cloth on which embroidery, tapestry, etc, is done
- the canvas the floor of a boxing or wrestling ring
- rowing the tapering covered part at either end of a racing boat, sometimes referred to as a unit of lengthto win by a canvas
- under canvas
- in tents
- nauticalwith sails unfurled
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Word Origin
C14: from Norman French canevas, ultimately from Latin cannabis hemp
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for canvas
n.
"sturdy cloth made from hemp or flax," mid-14c., from Anglo-French canevaz, Old North French canevach, Old French chanevaz, literally "made of hemp, hempen," noun use of Vulgar Latin adjective *cannapaceus "made of hemp," from Latin cannabis, from Greek kannabis "hemp," a Scythian or Thracian word (see cannabis).
Latin adjectives in -aceus sometimes were made in Romanic languages into nouns of augmentative or pejorative force. Especially as a surface for oil paintings from c.1700; hence "an oil painting" (1764).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper