Dictionary Home » Dictionary Definitions » canvas

canvas

Listen See in Thesaurus See in a sentence

The definition of a canvas is a surface you paint on that is often made from tightly stretched unbleached cloth or a closely woven fabric that is often used to make boat sail, purses and upholstery.

(noun)

An example of a canvas is a surface on which you do an oil painting.
An example of a canvas is an oil painting that has been completed.
An example of canvas is a material from which a purse is made.

See canvas in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

a closely woven, coarse cloth of hemp, cotton, or linen, often unbleached, used for tents, sails, etc.
a sail or set of sails
1. a specially prepared piece of canvas on which an oil painting is made
2. such a painting
a tent or tents, esp. circus tents
any coarse cloth of open mesh weave on which embroidery or tapestry is done

Origin: ME & OFr canevas < It canavaccio < VL *cannapaceum, hempen cloth < L cannabis, hemp

See canvas in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun

A heavy, coarse, closely woven fabric of cotton, hemp, or flax, used for tents and sails.
a. A piece of such fabric on which a painting, especially an oil painting, is executed.
b. A painting executed on such fabric.
A fabric of coarse open weave, used as a foundation for needlework.
The background against which events unfold, as in a historical narrative: a grim portrait of despair against the bright canvas of the postwar economy.
Nautical A sail or set of sails.
a. A tent or group of tents.
b. A circus tent.
Sports The floor of a ring in which boxing or wrestling takes place.