Canvas definition
A heavy, coarse, closely woven fabric of cotton, hemp, or flax, traditionally used for tents and sails.
noun
(nautical) A sail or set of sails.
noun
A fabric of coarse open weave, used as a foundation for needlework.
noun
A piece of such fabric on which a painting, especially an oil painting, is executed.
noun
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.
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.
noun
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(sports) The floor of a ring in which boxing or wrestling takes place.
noun
A painting executed on such fabric.
noun
A tent or group of tents.
noun
A circus tent.
noun
A sail or set of sails.
noun
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A tent or group of tents, as of a circus.
noun
Any coarse cloth of open mesh weave on which embroidery or tapestry is done.
noun
A specially prepared piece of canvas on which an oil painting is made.
noun
Such a painting.
noun
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A piece of canvas cloth stretched across a frame on which one may paint.
noun
A basis for creative work.
The author takes rural midwestern life as a canvas for a series of tightly woven character studies.
noun
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A rough draft or model of a song, air, or other literary or musical composition; especially one to show a poet the measure of the verses he is to make.
noun
To cover an area or object with canvas.
verb
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The background against which events unfold, as in a historical narrative.
A grim portrait of despair against the bright canvas of the postwar economy.
noun
A closely woven, coarse cloth of hemp, cotton, or linen, often unbleached, used for tents, sails, etc.
noun
under canvas
- With sails spread.
- In a tent or tents.
idiom
the canvas
- the canvas-covered floor of a boxing ring
idiom
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under canvas
- in tents
- with sails unfurled
- by means of sails
idiom
Idioms and Phrasal Verbs
Origin of canvas
- Middle English canevas from Old French and from Medieval Latin canavāsium both ultimately from Latin cannabis hemp cannabis
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
- From Anglo-Norman, from Old Northern French canevas (compare Old French chanevas, chenevas) from a root ultimately derived from Latin cannabis, possibly a Vulgar Latin *cannabāceus or *cannapāceus. Cf. French canevas, resulting from a blend of the Old French and a Picard dialect word, itself from Old Northern French.
From Wiktionary