canvas
n. C / Un. a strong, heavy cloth used for making things like tents, bags, and sails. Artists also use it as the surface for their oil or acrylic paintings.
n. a heavy, durable, plain-woven fabric typically made from cotton, hemp, or linen. It is used extensively in industrial applications and as a primary support for oil painting.
The artist painted a beautiful landscape on the large canvas.
The sailors quickly patched the canvas sails before the storm reached the ship.
Modern galleries often display raw canvas to highlight the texture of the weave, whereas classical masters preferred to hide the fabric under thick layers of primer and oil paint.
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 variant of canvass.
Uncountable when referring to the material in general; countable when referring to a specific piece of fabric prepared for a painting.