Canvas
['kænvəs]
Definition
(noun.) a heavy, closely woven fabric (used for clothing or chairs or sails or tents).
(noun.) the mat that forms the floor of the ring in which boxers or professional wrestlers compete; 'the boxer picked himself up off the canvas'.
(noun.) an oil painting on canvas fabric.
(noun.) the setting for a narrative or fictional or dramatic account; 'the crowded canvas of history'; 'the movie demanded a dramatic canvas of sound'.
(verb.) cover with canvas; 'She canvassed the walls of her living room so as to conceal the ugly cracks'.
Edited by Clare--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A strong cloth made of hemp, flax, or cotton; -- used for tents, sails, etc.
(n.) A coarse cloth so woven as to form regular meshes for working with the needle, as in tapestry, or worsted work.
(n.) A piece of strong cloth of which the surface has been prepared to receive painting, commonly painting in oil.
(n.) Something for which canvas is used: (a) A sail, or a collection of sails. (b) A tent, or a collection of tents. (c) A painting, or a picture on canvas.
(n.) A rough draft or model of a song, air, or other literary or musical composition; esp. one to show a poet the measure of the verses he is to make.
(a.) Made of, pertaining to, or resembling, canvas or coarse cloth; as, a canvas tent.
Checker: Victoria
Definition
n. a coarse cloth made of hemp used for sails tents &c. and for painting on: the sails of a ship.—v.t. to cover with canvas.—ns. Can′vas-back a North American duck very good eating its back ashy white crossed by broken zigzag dark lines; Can′vas-climb′er (Shak.) a sailor; Can′vas-stretch′er a wooden frame on which canvas is stretched for oil-painting; Can′vas-work embroidery upon cloth over which canvas has been laid to guide the stitches: an embroidery in Berlin wool on silk canvas with plush-stitch.—Under canvas having the sails unfurled under sail: living in tents.
Edited by Horace
Examples
- Adrian sat at the helm; I attended to the rigging, the breeze right aft filled our swelling canvas, and we ran before it over the untroubled deep. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- A spare parlour and bedroom I refurnished entirely, with old mahogany and crimson upholstery: I laid canvas on the passage, and carpets on the stairs. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- A single suit of her sails consisted of 15,563 yards of canvas. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- I don't quite know, ma'am,' said Oliver, without taking his eyes from the canvas; 'I have seen so few that I hardly know. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- The grass was lush underfoot after the pineneedle floor of the forest and the dew on the grass wet through their canvas rope-soled shoes. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- These pictures are all battle scenes, and only one solitary little canvas among them all treats of anything but great French victories. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- The superficies yields to the soil, says the civil law: The writing to the paper: The canvas to the picture. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- The reasoning is perilously like that of the gifted lady amateur who expects to achieve greatness by imitating the paint box and palette, oils and canvases of an artist. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- There were a dozen easels in the room, and as many artists transferring the great picture to their canvases. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- The marriages of either were discussed; and their prospects in life canvassed with the greatest frankness and interest on both sides. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- The subject which had been so warmly canvassed between their parents, about a twelvemonth ago, was now brought forward again. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
- Probably no organized piece of machinery has ever been so systematically exploited, so thoroughly advertised, so persistently canvassed, and so extensively sold as the sewing machine. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- In those days, this matter of slavery had never been canvassed as it has now; nobody dreamed of any harm in it. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- He had canvassed eagerly for this post. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- They appeared to be always excited about canvassing and electing. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- We think so very differently on this point, Mr. Knightley, that there can be no use in canvassing it. Jane Austen. Emma.
Inputed by Lennon