▪ I. canvas, canvass, n.
(ˈkænvəs)
Forms: 4–5 canevas, 5 kaneuas, canivas, 5–6 canwas, 5–7 canuas, 6 canvesse, canues, (cannefas), 6–7 canves, 6–8 canvase, (7 canuase, canvasse, canuasse, 8 dial. canvest, cannas, canness), 5– canvas, 7– canvass.
[ME. canevas, a. ONF. canevas (Central OF. chanevas) = Pr. canabas, Sp. cañamazo, It. canavaccio:—late L. type *cannabāceus ‘hempen’, f. cannabis hemp. (From Lat. adjs. in -āceus were made, in Romanic, adjs. and ns. of augm. and pejorative force, e.g. L. populus, populāce-us, It. popolaccio, Eng. populace.) The word has entered into most of the European langs.
The spelling canvas, with one s, plural canvases (cf. atlases) is, it will be seen, more etymological than canvass, and now predominates; this spelling is also better used in the verb with the literal sense of ‘furnish or line with canvas’, whence canvased, canvasing; but the old derivative verb with sense ‘to toss in a sheet, discuss, debate, solicit votes’, is now always spelt canvass, and this spelling is retained in the verbal n. in turn derived from it, as ‘the electoral canvass’.]
1. A strong or coarse unbleached cloth made of hemp or flax, used (in different forms) as the material for sails of ships, for tents, and by painters for oil-paintings, formerly also for clothing, etc.
| 1260 et seq. in Rogers Agric. & Pr. II. 511. c 1325 Coer de L. 2645 A melle he hadde..Four sayles wer theretoo..With canevas layd wel al bout. c 1450 Voc. in. Wr.-Wülcker 570 Canevasium, Canevas. c 1460 Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. (1714) 19 A pore Cote under their uttermost Garment, made of grete Canvas. 1537 Bury Wills (1850) 133 My best couerlett lyned wyth canwas. 1608 Rowlands Humors Look. Glasse 6 Sattin and silke was pawned long a goe, And now in canuase, no knight can him knowe. 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. (1675) Pref. 21 The fashion, that..allows our Gallants to wear fine Laces upon Canvass and Buckram. 1871 Bryant Odyss. v. 312 Calypso..brought him store Of canvass, which he fitly shaped to sails. |
b. under canvas: in a tent or tents.
| 1864 Soc. Science Rev. 137 A life under canvas in the finer seasons of the year. 187. F. Griffiths Eng. Army i. 26 The residue lived all the year round under canvas. |
2. A piece of canvas used for various purposes: as † a. A sheet, covering or screen; a filtering or bolting cloth; a blind for a carriage window, etc. Obs.
| c 1386 Chaucer Can. Yeom. Prol. & T. 387 And on the floor y-cast a canevas [v.r. kaneuas, canvas]. 1411 E.E. Wills (1882) 19 A reed bedde of worsteyd..with a canvase, a materas. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 397/2 There was a canuas that hynge ouer hys heed. 1561 Hollybush Hom. Apoth. 27 Wett a cannefas in Endiue water..and laye it vpon the lyuer. 1582 J. Hester Phiorav. Secr. iii. xlii. 61 Straine it harde through a Canues. 1667 Sir R. Moray in Phil. Trans. II. 474 All the interposed Canvasses. 1754 Richardson Grandison (1812) I. 210 On the contrary side of the chariot (his canvass being still up on that next me). 1785 S. Fielding Ophelia II. xviii, A chariot..having canvasses to let down. |
b. A covering over the ends of a racing-boat to prevent water from being shipped; hence canvas-length (see 8).
| 1880 Newspaper. At the Farm he led by his forward canvas. 1887 St. James's G. 28 Mar. 13 Not a canvas-length (about 15 ft.) separated the boats. |
c. Boxing, etc. A covering over the floor of a boxing or wrestling ring; hence by metonymy, such a floor. Phr. to hit (or kiss) the canvas: to be floored in a contest.
| 1910 Nevada State Jrnl. 5 July 2/4 The fifteenth round lasted two minutes and 27 seconds. Out of this Jeffries was on the canvas 26 seconds. 1919 Toledo (Ohio) News-Bee 5 July 12/2 A salvo of heavy whacks from right and left again made Jess kiss the canvas. 1922 Ring June 21/1 He never got out o' the way of it and the first thing that hits the canvas is the back of his neck. 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §699/1 Canvas, resin, rosin, rosin-covered canvas, the floor of the ring, hence a prize ring. 1967 C. Potok Chosen i. ii. 45, I hit the canvas so hard I rattled my toenails. 1977 Westindian World 3–9 June 19/1 Frazier caught Ali with a vicious right hand which sent Ali crashing to the canvas for only the second time in his career. |
3. spec. As material for sails; sail-cloth; hence, sails collectively. under canvas: with sails spread.
| 1609 [see canvas-climber in 8]. 1645 Quarles Sol. Recant. vii. 88 Pilots that are wise Proportion out their Canvase to the skies. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 347 To spread the flying Canvass. 1794 Rigging & Seamanship I. 86 From No. 1 to 6 is termed double, and above No. 6 single, canvas. 1835 Sir J. Ross N.-W. Pass. iii. 32 We were obliged to reduce our canvas. c 1860 H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 52 Canvas is made in lengths of 40 feet called bolts..The stoutest is called No. 1, and so on in fineness to No. 8. 1873 Black Pr. Thule xv. 242 The small boat was put under canvas again. |
4. spec. As material on which oil-paintings are executed; hence, a piece of canvas prepared to receive a painting.
| 1705 Tate Warriour's Welc. xxxiv, Then try your Skill: a well-prim'd Canvass stretch. 1756–7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) II. 273 Damp, which is such a prejudice to the pictures on canvas or wood. 1769 Junius Lett. xxx. 135 Mark in what manner the canvass is filled up. 1805 N. Nicholls Let. in Corr. w. Gray (1843) 43 A power..of painting a scene, by judicious detail, as if it were on canvas. |
b. An oil-painting; also, paintings collectively.
| 1764 Goldsm. Trav. 137 The canvas glow'd beyond e'en Nature warm. 1835 Lytton Rienzi ii. i, Receptacles for the immortal canvas of Italian..Art. 1868 Ruskin Pol. Econ. Art ii. 125 Cheques..freely offered, for such and such canvasses. 1882 Athenæum No. 2866. 439 The most important serial or cyclical group by Mr. E. Burne Jones..consists of six canvases in all. |
c. fig.
| 1768–78 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 422 Striving to imprint..upon the imagination so much..as her coarse canvass can take off. 1822 Hazlitt Table-t. II. iii. 47 The canvas of the fancy is but of a certain extent. 1845 J. H. Newman Ess. Developm. Introd. 7 History..does not bring out clearly upon the canvass the details. |
‖ d. [Fr.] (See quots. and cf. Littré.)
| 1727–51 Chambers Cycl., Canvas, is also used, among the French, for the model, or first words, whereon an air, or piece of music, is composed, and given to a poet to regulate and finish. The canvas of a song, is certain notes of the composer, which shew the poet the measure of the verses he is to make. Thus, Du Lot says, he has canvas for ten sonnets against the muses. 1730–6 in Bailey. 1849 in Smart. 1864 in Webster. |
5. A clear unbleached cloth so woven as to present the appearance of close and regular lattice-work, used for working tapestry with the needle.
| 1611 Cotgr., Gaze, Cushion Canuas; the thinne Canuas that serues women for a ground vnto their Cushions, or Purseworke, etc. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., Working canvas, for botts or cushions, narrow, broad, and broadest. |
† 6. Hawking. (An early use, of which the precise meaning is now obscure.) Cf. canvas v. 1.
| 1589 Nashe Pasquill & Mar. 10 Such canuaces made, such stales set, such traynes laide by the factious, to bring their Superiours into contempt. |
7. attrib. (or adj.) a. Of canvas.
| 1563 T. Gale Antidot. ii. 49 Straine it through a newe canues clothe. 1627 Drayton Agincourt (R.) Barks..with their canvass wings. 1720 Gay Poems (1745) I. 165 Thick rising tents a canvass city build. 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. II. xvi. 167 Canvas moccasins..for every one of the party. |
† b. Having the colour or appearance of canvas; light grey. Cf. canvas-back 2. Obs.
| 1486 Bk. St. Albans A vij b, Hawkes haue white maill, Canuasmaill, or Rede maill..Canuas maill is betwene white maill and Iron maill. |
c. Pertaining to a canvas booth at a fair.
| 1860 Mayhew Lond. Labour III. 131 A fair, or as we call it, a canvas clown. Ibid. 149 Strolling actors..as long as they are acting in a booth, are called canvas actors. |
8. Comb., as canvas-breadth, canvas-cutter, canvas-dauber, canvas-stretcher; canvas-bag, a bag made of canvas; also Mil. (see quot. 1708); † canvas-climber, a sailor; canvas-length (see 2 b above).
| 1708 Kersey, *Canvas-bags or Earth-bags (in Fortif.) are Baggs fill'd with Earth, and us'd to raise [or repair] a Breast-work in haste. 1721–1800 in Bailey. 1838 Dickens O. Twist II. viii. 173 Guineas in a canvas bag. |
| 1768 Ross Helenore 27 (Jam.) The shade beneath a *Canuess-braid outthrow. |
| 1608 Shakes. Per. iv. i. 62 From the ladder tackle washes off a *Canuas-clymer. |
| 1806 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Tristia Wks. 1812 V. 267 Behold the *Canvas-dauber! |
▸ canvasman n. U.S. a person employed in a circus or other itinerant show to erect, take down, and maintain its tents.
| 1869 Decatur (Illinois) Republican (Electronic text) 20 May The proprietors of that house had refused to entertain his *canvas-men, roust-a-bouts and grooms, upon the ground that their hotel was for a different class of men. 1999 Esquire July 25 Ashley..was, among other things, the canvasman of his own two-ring circus at the age of nine. |
▸ canvas town n. a settlement composed primarily of tents; a camp; cf. tent city n. at tent n.1 Compounds 2.
| 1763 J. Hoole tr. T. Tasso Jerusalem Delivered II. xvii. 178 To these succeed the wand'ring Arab train, Who shift their *canvas towns from plain to plain. 1862 J. A. Patterson Gold Fields Vic. 195 Though long a ‘canvas town’, Maryborough has made considerable strides. 1995 Evening Post (Wellington, N.Z.) (Nexis) 19 Dec. 19 They erect the temporary canvas towns which become home for the holidays. |
▪ II. canvas, v.
(ˈkænvəs)
Also canvass.
[f. prec. n.: see also canvass v., which has the same origin, but is unconnected in sense, and is now never spelt canvas. For spelling, see note to prec. n.]
† 1. Hawking. To entangle or catch in a net (see canvas n. 6); also transf. and fig. Obs.
| 1559 Mirr. Mag. 230 (N.) As the canuist kite, doth feare the snare. 1576 G. Pettie Palace of Pleas., The hawke having bin once canvassed in the nettes, wil make it daungerous to strike againe at the stale. 1580 Lyly Euphues 402 Some thing I should [1581 would] not utter which happylye the itchying eares of young gentlemen would so canuas, that when I would call it in, I cannot, and so be caughte with the Torteise, when I would not. 1653 E. Chisenhale Cath. Hist. 95 Unless he..made a bait to fly at a Bishoprick, and being canvassed in Peters net, it stirred up some atra bilis. |
† 2. ? To stuff or pad out with canvas. Obs.
| 1606 Chapman Mons. D'Olive Plays (1873) I. 200 Heers wit canuast out ans coate into's Jacket. 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Wks. ii. 65/1 Linnen Drapers but for transportation Could hardly Canuase out their occupation. |
3. To cover, line, or furnish with canvas.
| 1556 [see below]. 1865 Dickens Christmas Bks., Dr. Marigold, The door had been nailed up and canvassed over. 1881 Mrs. Praed Policy & P. I. 122 The walls were only canvased. 1885 Manch. Guardian 10 Jan. 6 More cotton was still to be baled and canvassed. |
Hence ˈcanvased ppl. a.
| 1556 Robinson tr. More's Utop. (Arb.) 80 marg., Glazed or canuased windowes. 1559 [see 1 above]. 1875 Daily News 18 Mar., Canvassed verandahs. |