Library / English Dictionary

CANOPY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: canopied   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A covering (usually of cloth) that serves as a roof to shelter an area from the weather

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("canopy" is a kind of...):

shelter (protective covering that provides protection from the weather)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "canopy"):

awning; sunblind; sunshade (a canopy made of canvas to shelter people or things from rain or sun)

baldachin (ornamented canopy supported by columns or suspended from a roof or projected from a wall (as over an altar))

marquee; marquise (permanent canopy over an entrance of a hotel etc.)

porte-cochere (canopy extending out from a building entrance to shelter those getting in and out of vehicles)

tester (a flat canopy (especially one over a four-poster bed))

umbrella (a lightweight handheld collapsible canopy)

Derivation:

canopy (cover with a canopy)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The umbrellalike part of a parachute that fills with air

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("canopy" is a kind of...):

cloth; fabric; material; textile (artifact made by weaving or felting or knitting or crocheting natural or synthetic fibers)

Holonyms ("canopy" is a part of...):

chute; parachute (rescue equipment consisting of a device that fills with air and retards your fall)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The transparent covering of an aircraft cockpit

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("canopy" is a kind of...):

covering (an artifact that covers something else (usually to protect or shelter or conceal it))

Holonyms ("canopy" is a part of...):

cockpit (compartment where the pilot sits while flying the aircraft)

Derivation:

canopy (cover with a canopy)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cover with a canopy

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "canopy" is one way to...):

cover (provide with a covering or cause to be covered)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

canopy (a covering (usually of cloth) that serves as a roof to shelter an area from the weather)

canopy (the transparent covering of an aircraft cockpit)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Having identified the timing sequences related to each type of fungus, the researchers developed and tested a statistical model to predict the areas of fungus domination in any particular Landsat image from canopy changes alone.

(NASA Satellite Images Uncover Underground Forest Fungi, NASA)

The browning of the forest canopy is consistent with observed decreases in the amount of water available to plants, whether that is in the form of rainfall, water stored in the ground, water in near-surface soils, or water within the vegetation.

(NASA finds drought may take toll on Congo rainforest, NASA)

While Laurie listlessly watched the procession of priests under their canopies, white-veiled nuns bearing lighted tapers, and some brotherhood in blue chanting as they walked, Amy watched him, and felt a new sort of shyness steal over her, for he was changed, and she could not find the merry-faced boy she left in the moody-looking man beside her.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Understory trees such as striped maples grow beneath the forest canopy and may become unhealthy for many reasons: insects chew on them, deer use them for antler rubs, large trees fall on them during storms, and drought can affect them.

(Striped maple trees often change mating types, with females more likely to die, National Science Foundation)

Under this canopy of green two men were already squatted, who waved their hands to Alleyne that he should join them.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This study explains why eating leaves in the canopies of trees leads to life in the slow lane, why fast-moving animals like birds tend not to eat leaves, and why animals like deer that eat a lot of leaves tend to be big and live on the ground.

(Putting the sloth in sloths: Arboreal lifestyle drives slow pace, NSF)

Using satellite images of forest canopies, the team probed whether they could identify any patterns in the spectral signatures of tree species associated with one type of fungus that did not appear in species associated with the other type.

(NASA Satellite Images Uncover Underground Forest Fungi, NASA)

They found that spotted owls clustered in areas with very tall trees and stands almost exclusively, over 150 feet (48 m), avoiding areas that only had moderate or low canopy, regardless of how dense or wide.

(Researchers find preserving spotted owl habitat may not require a tradeoff with wildfire risk after all, Wikinews)

We passed rapidly along; the sun was hot, but we were sheltered from its rays by a kind of canopy while we enjoyed the beauty of the scene, sometimes on one side of the lake, where we saw Mont Salêve, the pleasant banks of Montalègre, and at a distance, surmounting all, the beautiful Mont Blanc, and the assemblage of snowy mountains that in vain endeavour to emulate her; sometimes coasting the opposite banks, we saw the mighty Jura opposing its dark side to the ambition that would quit its native country, and an almost insurmountable barrier to the invader who should wish to enslave it.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

There too was the broad sweep of the river Exe, the old stone well, the canopied niche of the Virgin, and in the centre of all the cluster of white-robed figures who waved their hands to him.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)