Other forms: tapestries
A tapestry is a heavy cloth with a picture woven into it. Hang a tapestry, a medieval tapestry, the rich tapestry of life.
The picture is woven in rather than stitched on, which is what separates a true tapestry from embroidery — the Bayeux Tapestry is famously embroidery and so not one at all. They hung on castle walls for warmth as much as for show.
1nountapestryA heavy cloth with a picture woven into it.
“A huge tapestry showing a hunting scene covered one wall of the great hall.”
tapestry is a cloth.
Old French tapisserie comes through Latin from Greek tapes, a carpet or heavy cloth, probably from an Iranian word.
Ancient Greek
τάπης
Old French
tapisserie — tapestry
Middle English
tapestrie
English, today
tapestry
From Middle English tapestrie, from Old French tapisserie (“tapestry”), from Ancient Greek τάπης, from an ira source.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA