canvas
/ˈkæn.vəs/ noun C1- A type of coarse cloth, woven from hemp (traditionally) or from cotton and polyesters, useful for making sails, tents, and overcoats or as a surface for paintings.
- A piece of such cloth stretched across a frame on which one may paint an artwork. · She is painting a moonlight scene on the canvas.
- A mesh of loosely woven cotton strands or molded plastic to be decorated with needlepoint, cross-stitch, rug hooking, or other crafts.
- A basis for creative work. · The author takes rural midwestern life as a canvas for a series of tightly woven character studies
- A region on which graphics can be rendered.
- Sails in general.
- A tent. · He spent the night under canvas.
- 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.
Plural canvases
From the library
“There’s no doubt about the authenticity, for the name and the date, 1647, are on the back of the canvas.”
The face of Stapleton had sprung out of the canvas.
Every idea that had been brought forward by the housekeeper was favourable to his character; and as she stood before the canvas, on which he was represented, and fixed his eyes upon herself, she thought of his regard with a deeper sentiment of gratitude than it had ever raised before: she remembered its warmth, and softened its impropriety of expression.
They had a large canvas bag, which tied up at the mouth with strings: into this they slipped the guinea-pig, head first, and then sat upon it.)
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