tapestry
[tap-uh-stree]
- 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.
- a machine-woven reproduction of this.
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- to furnish, cover, or adorn with tapestry.
- to represent or depict in a tapestry.
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Origin of tapestry
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for tapestry
Contemporary Examples
I am thrilled because the subject matter is rich, but I like that it is a tapestry of color, which is very much needed.
Octavia Spencer on Hollywood and Race: The Film Roles I’m Offered Are Too SmallMarlow Stern
July 31, 2014
It looks as if it has been made from a Medieval tapestry, the colors rich and worn-looking.
Here Comes the Bride…In Flaming Red: Two Centuries of Colorful Wedding DressesLiza Foreman
May 7, 2014
In a lovely circular twist, the tapestry's true subject turns out to be the luxe of which it's an example.
A tapestry like this was the ultimate luxury good and status symbol, worth so much more than a measly painting.
This tapestry was woven in Flanders in about 1500 for a noble French client.
Historical Examples
On the walls were hung some pieces of tapestry, where there were not bookcases.
Within the LawMarvin Dana
The posters, maculated with filth, garnished like tapestry the sweep of the curbstone.
The Secret AgentJoseph Conrad
There had been just room, and no more, for Clara to stand between the tapestry and the books.
Wilfrid CumbermedeGeorge MacDonald
In a costume other than evening clothes, he might have walked out of a tapestry.
The Paliser caseEdgar Saltus
After a drawing, now in the Louvre, for Raphaels tapestry cartoons.
John Baptist JacksonJacob Kainen
tapestry
- 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
- another word for needlepoint
- a colourful and complicated situationthe rich tapestry of London life
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Word Origin
C15: from Old French tapisserie carpeting, from Old French tapiz carpet; see tapis
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for tapestry
n.
mid-15c., variant of tapissery (early 15c.), from Middle French tapisserie "tapestry" (14c.), from tapisser "to cover with heavy fabric," from tapis "heavy fabric," from Old French tapiz (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *tappetium, from Byzantine Greek tapetion, from classical Greek, diminutive of tapes (genitive tapetos) "tapestry, heavy fabric," probably from an Iranian source (cf. Persian taftan, tabidan "to turn, twist"). The figurative use is first recorded 1580s.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper