Tarpaulin

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. A piece of canvas covered with tar or a waterproof composition, used for covering the hatches of a ship, hammocks, boats, etc.

2. A hat made of, or covered with, painted or tarred cloth, worn by sailors and others.

3. Hence, a sailor; a seaman; a tar. To a landsman, these tarpaulins, as they were called, seemed a strange and half-savage race. Macaulay.