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of hemp, flax, or cotton; -- used for tents, sails, etc. By glimmering lanes and walls of canvas led. Tennyson.

A Species of duck (Aythya vallisneria), esteemed for the delicacy of its flesh. It visits the United States in autumn; particularly Chesapeake Bay and adjoining waters; -- so named from the markings of the plumage on its back.

To sift; to strain; to examine thoroughly; to scrutinize; as, to canvass the votes cast at an election; to canvass a district with reference to its probable vote. I have made careful search on all hands, and canvassed the matter with all possible diligence. Woodward.

One who canvasses.

ike some mighty admiral, dark and terrible, bearing down upon his antagonist with all his canvas straining to the wind, and all his thunders roaring from his broadsides. E. Everett.

us), or its fiber, which is used throughout India for making ropes, cordage, and a coarse canvas and sackcloth; --called also brown Indian hemp.

The act of going about to solicit or obtain an office, or any other object of desire; canvassing. [Obs.] [I] used no ambition to commend my deeds. Milton.

A canvassing for votes.

A rooflike cover, usually of canvas, extended over or before any place as a shelter from the sun, rain, or wind.

To swell and become protuberant, like the belly; to bulge. The bellying canvas strutted with the gale. Dryden.

A band of canvas, to strengthen a sail.

A canvas for a portrait measuring 58 by 94 inches. The half bishop measures 45 of 56.

A cushioned or a piece of soft wood covered with tarred canvas, placed on the trestletrees and against the mast, for the collars of the shrouds to rest on, to prevent chafing.

A compact package or roll of cloth, as of canvas or silk, often containing about forty yards.

An additional piece of canvas laced to the foot of a jib or foresail in moderate winds. Hakluyt.

A band for the breast. Specifically: (Naut.) A band of canvas, or a rope, fastened at both ends to the rigging, to support the man who heaves the lead in sounding.

Trousers; pantaloons. [Colloq.] Breeches buoy, in the life-saving service, a pair of canvas breeches depending from an annular or beltlike life buoy which is usually of cork. This contrivance, inclosing the person to be rescued, is hung by short ropes from a block which runs upon the hawser stretched from the ship to t…

To contend for; to canvass; to solicit. [Obs.] Bp. Hurd.

ore cable run out of the hawse hole. -- To serve the cable, to bind it round with ropes, canvas, etc., to prevent its being, worn or galled in the hawse, et. -- To slip the cable, to let go the end on board and let it all run out and go overboard, as when there is not time to weigh anchor. Hence, in sailor's use, to…

external object or objects to appear as if projected upon a plane surface, as of paper or canvas, so that the outlines may conveniently traced. It is generally used with the microscope.