canvas noun [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.