drop cloth

American  

Or dropcloth

noun

1. a sheet of cloth, paper, plastic, or the like laid over furniture and floors for protection while a room is being painted or laid over shrubbery while the exterior of a house is being painted.

---

Etymology

Origin of drop cloth

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

Every night, he would roll up the drop cloth, vacuum and take a shower.

From Seattle Times • Jul. 20, 2021

The bags contained a cover for a bow saw, a receipt from a local hardware store, a drop cloth and a newspaper with the delivery address of an apartment house in Galveston.

From New York Times • Mar. 3, 2020

She’s also found that the mats work well as a drop cloth under a baby’s high chair and, in a pinch, as a compact bath mat.

From Slate • Jan. 4, 2019

And that’s just fine with Larson, whose geometric abstractions on canvas, drop cloth and metal are nothing if not comfortable in their own skin.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 27, 2018

It’s empty now, a drop cloth on the floor, a tangle of wires poking out of the center of the ceiling.

From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri