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canvasback

American  
[kan-vuhs-bak] / ˈkæn vəsˌbæk /

noun

  • canvasbacks,
    plural
  • canvasback
    plural
  1. a North American wild duck, Aythya valisineria, the male of which has a whitish back and a reddish-brown head and neck.


canvasback British  
/ ˈkænvəsˌbæk /

noun

  1. a North American diving duck, Aythyra valisineria, the male of which has a white body and reddish-brown head

"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

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of canvasback

An Americanism dating back to 1595–1605; after the canvaslike color of its back

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Vocabulary lists containing canvasback

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

On the banks of Yosemite Creek, brown-headed canvasback ducks plunged and preened.

From Washington Post Jul. 1, 2021

For dinner a director of the Pennsylvania Railroad had presented a canvasback duck.

From Time Magazine Archive

Mallards, pintails and wigeon make up the bulk of the puddlers, while available divers include bluebills, redheads, buffleheads and an occasional canvasback.

From Time Magazine Archive

In this way, evening by evening, I drew them nearer till at length in the dusk one evening a young canvasback snatched a piece of bread from my fingers.

From Time Magazine Archive

Bingham bowed over his glass, and regretted that canvasback ducks and terrapin were not yet in season.

From The Red City A Novel of the Second Administration of President Washington by S. Weir (Silas Weir) Mitchell

Also spotted, but in fewer numbers, were snow geese, buffleheads, redheads, goldeneyes, American widgeon, ruddy, ring-necked, canvasbacks, scaup and wood ducks.

From Washington Times Feb. 15, 2015

I continued my coaxing and in a few days three of the four young canvasbacks would come to me for food.

From Time Magazine Archive

The heavy-resin cast mallards and canvasbacks appear to have made a bad landing at your doorstep.

From Time Magazine Archive

The blue and green-winged teal had already begun to fly; canvasbacks, mallards, widgeons, pintails, shovelers and redheads would follow soon, before and with the frost.

From Time Magazine Archive

Flying goldeneyes make a whistling sound; wood ducks move with a swish; canvasbacks make a steady rushing sound.

From Ducks at a Distance A Waterfowl Identification Guide by Robert W. Hines

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