Canvas Meaning
/ˈkænvəs/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA 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.
nounA piece of such cloth stretched across a frame on which one may paint an artwork.
Sentence Examples
This world is but canvas to our imaginations.
Oil on canvas can never paint a petal so delicate.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The artist stretched a fresh ____ over the wooden frame before beginning to paint.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The artist painted a beautiful landscape on a large white ____ today.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English canevas, from Anglo-Norman, from Old Northern French canevas (compare Old French chanevas, chenevas) from a root derived from Latin cannabis, from Ancient Greek κάνναβις (kánnabis). Compare French canevas, resulting from a blend of the Old French and a Picard dialect word, itself from Old Northern French. Doublet of cannabis and hemp.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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."
— 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 556:
"Light, rich as that which glows on the canvas of Claude."
— 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XIII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
"A local doctor had bought one canvas and but for that lucky chance he would have been out of pocket."
— 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 17:
"The double desire of being able to overtake a weaker flying enemy, or to escape when pursued by a stronger, has induced the owners to overmast their cruisers, and to spread too much canvass; and the great number of men, many of them not seamen, who being upon deck when a ship heels suddenly are huddled down to leeward, and increase by their weight the effect of the wind."
— 1785 August, Benjamin Franklin, “On Improvements in Navigation”, in Jared Sparks, editor, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin, […], volume III, London: […] [Abraham John Valpy] for Henry Colburn, […], published 1818, →OCLC, part IV (Philosophical Subjects), page 525:
"And with the aunſwere here vpon eftſoones in hand they go, / The doubtfull wordes wherof they ſcan and canuas to and fro."
— 1567, Ovid, “The First Booke”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, […], London: […] Willyam Seres […], →OCLC, folio 7, recto:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The artist stretched a fresh ____ over the wooden frame before beginning to paint.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The artist painted a beautiful landscape on a large white ____ today.