blank canvas
5
3.9
- noun
:
lienzo en blanco
- But this game is a blank canvas for us, and we can decide how we'll paint the picture."
It's held up by just, there's no, you know, blank canvas to try something on.
- It's held up by just, there's no, you know, blank canvas to try something on.
- Difference was interpreted as absence, a blank canvas, a state of nature.
- And what was amazing about my son Ali and my daughter Aya is that they came to the world as a blank canvas, OK?
- That light is a brightness that is reflected in that blank canvas.
Examples
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I was presented with a blank canvas, which was exhilarating but at the same time daunting.
Academic text (2011) -
I wanted this house to be a blank canvas for you and your sister when we moved in.
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I just really need this very even blank canvas on which to create the next stage.
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But in the desert, we are alone and must face the blank canvas of nature.
Academic text (1993) -
Working with both high school and college students, we have used our community as a blank canvas onto which we paint entirely new landscapes.
Academic text (2012) -
A blank canvas can be intimidating.
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The approach I've always taken in the past is starting with a blank canvas and seeing where that leads me.
Blog text (12) -
The house presents as a blank canvas, onto which the family inserts the details of their ever-changing lives.
Blog text (12) -
It was so seductive: the act of facing a blank canvas with a palette.
Academic text (2005) -
The old house was a blank canvas for the new owners, allowing them to redesign it as they wished.
Synonyms
3
1.6
An empty area for writing or filling in information
1
9.6
A mind or situation with no previous experience
How Open
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'blank' (empty) and 'canvas' (a surface for painting): an empty surface ready to be filled. The metaphorical extension to situations or opportunities is common and easily inferable by learners who know both words, making the expression transparently compositional.
Etymology
Blank canvas comes from painting: a clean white canvas with nothing on it, a blank surface waiting for colour. So it means a situation that is 'empty' and 'ready to be filled' with ideas.