canvasbacks

Variant of canvasback

canvasback definition

canvas·back (-bak′)

noun pl. canvasbacks -·backs′ or canvasback -·back′

a large, North American wild duck (Aythya valisneria) with a brownish-red head, dark breast, and light-gray back, hunted as a game bird

Etymology: < the grayish, canvaslike appearance of the back

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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""And whether our best sort of Knights and Gentry now, do not exceed by much in those things the Nobility of England sixty Years past: Many of whom then would not go to the price of a whole Sattin Doubtlet; the Embroiderer being yet living, who hath assured me he hath made many hundreds of them for the Nobility with Canvas backs.""

Posted by anonymous 69 days ago.

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