ˈkæn.vəs ˈkæn.vəs ʃiːt ʃit cover with canvas She canvassed the walls of her living room so as to conceal the ugly cracks a heavy, closely woven fabric the mat that forms the floor of the ring in which boxers or professional wrestlers compete the boxer picked himself up off the canvas an oil painting on canvas fabric a tent made of canvas fabric a large piece of fabric (usually canvas fabric) by means of which wind is used to propel a sailing vessel the setting for a narrative or fictional or dramatic account the crowded canvas of history the movie demanded a dramatic canvas of sound