tapis

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“
How appropriate it seems to your condition You will be surprised to hear that your step-mother's brother has appeared on the tapis, and that he has had the audacity to propose to adopt Mabel, whom he claims as his niece He seems a gentlemanly person enough, but may be an impostor for aught I know.

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Definitions (11)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun Obsolete Tapestry or comparable material used for draperies, carpeting, and furniture covering.
  2. idiom on the tapis Under consideration.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (6)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Perhaps with Basil Pilgrim on the tapis, the Seacliff will be less catholic, but I doubt it. —  Artists in Crime - Ngaio Marsh - Alleyn 06: 1938
  • Of course, with Sonia on the tapis, almost anything may happen. —  Final Curtain - Ngaio Marsh - Roderick Alleyn 14
  • He was even forgotten for three hours while he was on the tapis, by a violent quarrel between Temple Luttrell (a brother of the Duchess of Cumberland) and Lord George Germaine; but the public has taken affection for neither them nor the General: being much more disposed at present to hate than to love—except the dead. —  Letters of Horace Walpole, v2
  • To Dr. Franz Brendel April 1st, 1855 Dear Friend, The question of criticism through creative and executive artists must some time come on the tapis, and Schumann affords a perfectly natural opportunity for it. —  Letters of Franz Liszt, Volume 1, "From Paris to Rome: Years of Travel as a Virtuoso,"
  • Among other topics Mozart came on the tapis, and the Born asked Beethoven (in writing, of course) which of Mozart's operas he thought most of. —  Beethoven: the Man and the Artist as Revealed in his own Words
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Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old French; see tapestry.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. Tagalog and Bisaya tapis.
  2. In modern use as mere F.; in earlier use as in the verb; from Old French tapis, tapiz, French tapis, tapestry, hangings, carpet, = Provencal tapit, tapi = Spanish Portuguese tapiz, from Middle Latin tapetium, tapecium, also tapecius, tapecia, tapezia, etc., figured cloth, tapestry, carpet, rug, pall, etc., from Greek ταπήτιον, diminutive of τάπης (ταπητ-), figured cloth, tapestry, etc.: see tappet. Hence tapis, v., and tapistry, now tapestry.
  3. Early modern English also tapess; from French tapisser, furnish with tapestry, from tapis, tapestry: see tapis, n.
 

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/ˈtæpɪs/
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