Can"vas (?), n. [OE. canvas, canevas, F. canevas, LL. canabacius hempen cloth, canvas, L. cannabis hemp, fr. G. . See Hemp.]
1.
A strong cloth made of hemp, flax, or cotton; -- used for tents, sails, etc.
By glimmering lanes and walls of canvas led.
Tennyson.
2. (a)
A coarse cloth so woven as to form regular meshes for working with the needle, as in tapestry, or worsted work.
(b)
A piece of strong cloth of which the surface has been prepared to receive painting, commonly painting in oil.
History . . . does not bring out clearly upon the canvas the details which were familiar.
J. H. Newman.
3.
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.
To suit his canvas to the roughness of the see.
Goldsmith.
Light, rich as that which glows on the canvas of Claude.
Macaulay.
4.
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.
Grabb.
© Webster 1913.
Can"vas, a.
Made of, pertaining to, or resembling, canvas or coarse cloth; as, a canvas tent.
© Webster 1913.