blanket
/ˈblæŋ.kɪt/ noun, adjective, verb
Forms blanket A dog wrapped within a blanket blankets blanketing blanketting blanketed blanketted
- noun A heavy, loosely woven fabric, usually large and woollen, used for warmth while sleeping or resting. “The baby was cold, so his mother put a blanket over him.”
- noun A covering layer of anything. “The city woke under a thick blanket of fog.”
- noun A thick rubber mat used in the offset printing process to transfer ink from the plate to the paper being printed. “A press operator must carefully wash the blanket whenever changing a plate.”
- noun A streak or layer of blubber in whales.
- adjective General; covering or encompassing everything.
- verb (transitive) To cover with, or as if with, a blanket. “A fresh layer of snow blanketed the area.”
- verb (transitive) To traverse or complete thoroughly. “The salesman blanketed the entire neighborhood.”
- verb (transitive) To toss in a blanket by way of punishment.
- verb (transitive) To take the wind out of the sails of (another vessel) by sailing to windward of it.
- verb (transitive) To nullify the impact of (someone or something).
- verb Of a radio signal: to override or block out another radio signal.
Synonyms
all-encompassing exhaustive across-the-board all around all-embracing catholic broad thick comprehensive overall sound sweeping thorough cover mantle all-inclusive encompassing extensive panoptic wide
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English blanket, blonket, blaunket, from Old Northern French blanket, blancet (“white horse", also "white woollen cloth or flannel; a type of jacket”, literally “that which is white”) (whence Modern French blanchet), diminutive of blanc (“white”), of Germanic origin (compare Old English blanca (“white horse”); see more at blank). Furthermore, the sense "white woollen cloth" is likely a calque of Old English hwītel (“blanket; cloak, mantle”), from Old English hwīt (“white”) + -el (diminutive suffix). Compare also Old Norse hvítill (“a white bed-cover, sheet”), Norwegian kvitel (“blanket”).
Compare also blunket, plunket. Displaced native Middle English whytel, from Old English hwītel (whence Modern English whittle (“blanket, cloak, shawl”)).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A heavy, loosely woven fabric, usually of wool, and having a nap, used in bed clothing; also, a similar fabric used as a robe; or any fabric used as a cover for a horse.
- noun A piece of rubber, felt, or woolen cloth, used in the tympan to make it soft and elastic.
- verb To cover with a blanket.
- verb To toss in a blanket by way of punishment.
Etymology [F. blanchet, OF. also blanket, a woolen waistcoat or shirt, the blanket of a printing press; prop. white woolen stuff, dim. of blanc white; blanquette a kind of white pear, fr. blanc white. See Blank, a.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “blanket”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details