Etymology 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.
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.
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:
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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.
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:
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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:
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A mesh of loosely woven cotton strands or molded plastic to be decorated with needlepoint, cross-stitch, rug hooking, or other crafts.
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:
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A tent.
He spent the night under canvas.
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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.
Etymology 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.