Canvas

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈkæn.vÉ™s/
• Homophones: canvass

Origin

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.

Full definition of canvas

Noun

1. A type of coarse cloth, woven from hemp, useful for making sails and tents or as a surface for paintings.
• 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Volume 4, p. 556.The term canvas is very widely used, as well to denote the coarse fabrics employed for kitchen use, as for strainers, and wraps for meat, as for the best quality of ordinary table and shirting linen. \
2. A piece of canvas cloth stretched across a frame on which one may paint.
3. A basis for creative work.The author takes rural midwestern life as a canvas for a series of tightly woven character studies.
4. (computer graphics) A region on which graphics can be rendered.
5. (nautical) sails in general
6. A tent.He spent the night under canvas.
7. A painting, or a picture on canvas.
• MacaulayLight, rich as that which glows on the canvas of Claude.
8. 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.
9. Alternative spelling of canvass

Usage notes

The plural canvases is used primarily in the US, while the plural canvasses is used in the UK and most UK-influenced areas.

Verb

1. To cover an area or object with canvas.
2. Alternative spelling of canvass