canvas
Other forms: canvases; canvassing; canvased; canvasing
Canvas is a heavy, coarse fabric artists paint on. It's also used to make sails, shoes, tents, or comfy director's chairs. It's a full-service fabric!
The noun canvas comes from the Latin cannabis by way of the Greek kannabis, meaning “hemp," which it was originally made of. It usually refers to the canvas we paint on, but you could carry a canvas bag while wearing canvas Converse high-tops. Henry David Thoreau, the poet and philosopher, said, “The world is but a canvas to our imaginations.” Don't confuse it with canvass, with the extra "s" — that's when people try to chat to get your vote.
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a heavy, closely woven fabric (used for clothing or chairs or sails or tents)
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a large piece of fabric (usually canvas fabric) by means of which wind is used to propel a sailing vesseltypes:balloon sailany light loose sailfore-and-aft sailany sail not set on a yard and whose normal position is in a fore-and-aft directionforesailthe lowest sail on the foremast of a square-rigged vesselheadsailany sail set forward of the foremast of a vesselmainsailthe lowermost sail on the mainmastmain-topsaila topsail set on the mainmastroyala sail set next above the topgallant on a royal mastsave-alla sail set to catch wind spilled from a larger sailskysailthe sail above the royal on a square-riggersquare saila four-sided sail set beneath a horizontal yard suspended at the middle from a masttopsaila sail (or either of a pair of sails) immediately above the lowermost sail of a mast and supported by a topmastfore-topsailthe topsail on a foremastfore-and-aft topsail, gaff topsaila triangular fore-and-aft sail with its foot along the gaff and its luff on the topmastjibany triangular fore-and-aft sail (set forward of the foremast)main coursea square mainsailspankera fore-and-aft sail set on the aftermost lower mast (usually the mizzenmast) of a vesselspinnakera large and usually triangular headsail; carried by a yacht as a headsail when running before the windspritsaila fore-and-aft sail extended by a spritstaysaila fore-and-aft sail set on a stay (as between two masts)type of:
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a piece of canvas cloth prepared as the surface for a paintingtype of:surfacethe outer boundary of an artifact or a material layer constituting or resembling such a boundary
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an oil painting on canvas fabrictype of:oil paintinga picture painted with oil paints
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cover with canvastype of:coverprovide with a covering or cause to be covered
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a tent made of canvas fabricsynonyms: canvas tenttypes:field tenta canvas tent for use in the fieldSibley tenta light conical canvas tent erected on a tripod with ventilation at the topwall tenta canvas tent with four vertical wallstype of:collapsible shelter, tenta portable shelter (usually of canvas stretched over supporting poles and fastened to the ground with ropes and pegs)
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the mat that forms the floor of the ring in which boxers or professional wrestlers compete
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the setting for a narrative or fictional or dramatic account
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Vocabulary lists containing canvas
The art of painting is at least 40,000 years old — there's something fundamentally human about the urge to create pictures of the things we see or imagine. Use this list to brush up on your palette of painterly parlance.
Learn the correct meanings and usages of these commonly confused words for ninth- and tenth-grade students.
In a dystopian future a young girl is forced to fight for her life and the life of her family in Suzanne Collins's hugely successful book series. When you finish this list, move on to the Chapter 2 words.