blanket

From Middle English blanket, blonket, from Old Northern French blanket, blankete, blanquette (Modern French blanchet), diminutive of blanc (“white”). More at blank. Apparently cognate to blunket, plunket.

A cat on a blanket.

• IPA^(key): /ˈblæŋkɪt/

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• Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -æŋkɪt

blanket (plural blankets)

1. 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.

   • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room Chapter 1

     The little boys in the front bedroom had thrown off their blankets and lay under the sheets.

2. A layer of anything.

   The city woke under a thick blanket of fog.

3. 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.

4. A streak or layer of blubber in whales.

• comforter
• doona
• duvet
• quilt

blanket (not comparable)

1. General; covering or encompassing everything.

   They sought to create a blanket solution for all situations.

   a blanket ban

• all-encompassing, exhaustive; see also Thesaurus:comprehensive

blanket (third-person singular simple present blankets, present participle blanketing, simple past and past participle blanketed)

1. (transitive) To cover with, or as if with, a blanket.
   • Shakespeare

     I'll […] blanket my loins.

   A fresh layer of snow blanketed the area.

   • 1884: Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter VIII

     I see the moon go off watch, and the darkness begin to blanket the river.

2. (transitive) To traverse or complete thoroughly.

   The salesman blanketed the entire neighborhood.

3. To toss in a blanket by way of punishment.
   • Ben Jonson

     We'll have our men blanket 'em i' the hall.

4. To take the wind out of the sails of (another vessel) by sailing to windward of it.
5. To nullify the impact of someone or something.

blanket

1. form (document)

From English blanket.

blanket

1. blanket