Contents

English

Etymology

Pronunciation

Noun

Singular canvas

Plural plural (UK) canvasses, (US) canvases

canvas (plural (UK) canvasses, (US) canvases)

  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. (nautical) sails in general
  5. A tent.
    He spent the night under canvas.
  6. Alternative spelling of canvass.

Verb

Infinitive to canvas

Third person singular canvases

Simple past canvased

Past participle canvased

Present participle canvasing

to canvas (third-person singular simple present canvases, present participle canvasing, simple past and past participle canvased)

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

Translations

To cover an area or object with canvas
  • French: toiler fr(fr), entoiler fr(fr)

 

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