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Tarpaulin vs Canvas - What's the difference?

tarpaulin | canvas |

As nouns the difference between tarpaulin and canvas

is that tarpaulin is a heavy, waterproof sheet of material, often cloth, used as a cover while canvas is a type of coarse cloth, woven from hemp, useful for making sails and tents or as a surface for paintings.

As a verb canvas is

to cover an area or object with canvas.

tarpaulin

English

(wikipedia tarpaulin)

Noun

(en noun)
  • (countable) A heavy, waterproof sheet of material, often cloth, used as a cover.
    • Throw a tarpaulin over that woodpile before it gets wet.
  • (countable, slang, archaic) A sailor. Often abbreviated to just tar.
  • (uncountable, obsolete) Any heavy, waterproof material used as a cover.
  • (uncountable, nautical, obsolete) Canvas waterproofed with tar, used as a cover.
  • A hat made of, or covered with, painted or tarred cloth, worn by sailors and others.

    • Usage notes

    * In the US, tarp is more commonly used than tarpaulin, even in print.

    Derived terms

    * tarp

    See also

    * pall

    External links

    * (wikipedia "tarpaulin")

    canvas

    English

    (wikipedia canvas)

    Noun

    (en-noun) (see usage notes)
  • A type of coarse cloth, woven from hemp, useful for making sails and tents or as a surface for paintings.
  • * 1882 , James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England , Volume 4, p. 556.
    • The term canvas is very widely used, as well to denote the coarse fabrics employed for kitchen use, as for strainers, and wraps for meat, as for the best quality of ordinary table and shirting linen. \
  • A piece of canvas cloth stretched across a frame on which one may paint.
  • A basis for creative work.
    • The author takes rural midwestern life as a canvas for a series of tightly woven character studies .
  • (computer graphics) A region on which graphics can be rendered.
  • (nautical) sails in general
  • A tent.
    • He spent the night under canvas .
  • A painting, or a picture on canvas.
    • (Goldsmith)
  • * Macaulay
    • Light, rich as that which glows on the canvas of Claude.
  • A rough draft or model of a song, air, or other literary or musical composition; especially one to show a poet the measure of the verses he is to make.
    • (Grabb)

    • Usage notes

    The plural is used in the UK and most UK-influenced areas.

    Verb

    (es)
  • To cover an area or object with canvas.