Test Your Vocabulary

Take Our 10-Question Quiz

Name That Thing

Take our visual vocab quiz

Test Your Knowledge »

True or False?

A quick quiz about stuff worth knowing

Take It Now »

Join Us on FB & Twitter

Get the Word of the Day and More

Facebook | Twitter

canvas

9 ENTRIES FOUND:

1can·vas

noun \ˈkan-vəs\

Definition of CANVAS

1
: a firm closely woven cloth usually of linen, hemp, or cotton used for clothing and formerly much used for tents and sails
2
: a set of sails : sail
3
: a piece of canvas used for a particular purpose
4
: tent; also : a group of tents
5
a : a piece of cloth backed or framed as a surface for a painting; also : the painting on such a surface b : the background, setting, or scope of a historical or fictional account or narrative
6
: a coarse cloth so woven as to form regular meshes for working with the needle
7
: the canvas-covered floor of a boxing or wrestling ring
can·vas·like \-vəs-ˌlīk\ adjective

Variants of CANVAS

can·vas also can·vass \ˈkan-vəs\

Examples of CANVAS

  1. a tent made of canvas
  2. Use a canvas to cover the boat.
  3. The museum has several canvases by Rubens.

Origin of CANVAS

Middle English canevas, from Anglo-French canevas, chanevaz, from Vulgar Latin *cannabaceus hempen, from Latin cannabis hemp — more at cannabis
First Known Use: 13th century

Other Textiles Terms

batt, bias, brocade, duck, flock, lawn, toile

Browse

Next Word in the Dictionary: canvasback
Previous Word in the Dictionary: canutillo
All Words Near: canvas

Seen & Heard

What made you want to look up canvas? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).