easel
Americannoun
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easels
plural
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a stand or frame for supporting or displaying at an angle an artist's canvas, a blackboard, a china plate, etc.
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Also called masking frame. Photography. a frame, often with adjustable masks, used to hold photographic paper flat and control borders when printing enlargements.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of easel
1625–35; < Dutch ezel ass, easel (cognate with German Esel, Old English esel ass) < Vulgar Latin *asilus, for Latin asellus, diminutive of asinus ass 1
Explanation
If you're an artist, you probably use an easel, a stand that holds the canvas you're painting. If an art gallery displays your painting in the window on a solid gold easel, you’re making a splash in the art world! An easel is a tripod, with three long legs that connect together at the top and spread out wide at the floor, for stability. Artists use easels to hold the canvas or paper they’re working on — not just to display finished works of art. If you travel to a scenic overlook, you might see an artist painting the view onto a canvas, propped up on an easel. Easels can display other things, too, like letters, posters, or signs.
Vocabulary lists containing easel
Visual Arts - Introductory
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Visual Arts - Middle School
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Mockingbird
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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:
The desk looks more like a small, table-top easel.
From Barron's ● May 29, 2026
Now, he’s relegated his studio space to a spot for recording Cameos, perched in front of a ring light rather than an easel.
From Salon ● Apr. 17, 2026
And she plays a supporting role in the background via a mirrored image of her at her easel, eyeing the tree.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 10, 2026
Santa Barbara’s Bellosguardo Estate include an art studio full of paintings by and of heiress Huguette Clark, who is seen in the work on the easel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2024
I think I’ll paint myself in front of an easel.
From "Bronx Masquerade" by Nikki Grimes
Upstairs at the studio I have a little painting area with easels for my grandkids, but my grandson, Jet, isn’t that into painting.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2026
About a dozen students sit at easels, intent on their brush strokes and the live model reclining on a cloth-draped platform.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 23, 2024
It was easier the second time around: we already had easels to display the pictures, and we were able to import the invites from Mom's big day over to Dad's.
From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2023
The invention of tubes of paint, as well as faster drying paint and collapsible easels, allowed artists to explore faster, more spontaneous ways of painting, often outdoors 'en plein air'.
From BBC ● May 23, 2023
Framed art hung from the walls and was displayed on freestanding easels.
From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
