blanket

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, likely a calque of Old English hwītel (“cloak, mantle”), from Old English hwīt (“white”) + -el (diminutive suffix). Compare also Old English blanca (“white horse”), Old Norse hvítill (“a white bed-cover, sheet”).

More at blank. Compare also blunket, plunket. Displaced native Middle English whytel, from Old English hwītel (whence Modern English whittle (“blanket, cloak, shawl”)).

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 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC:

     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.

• → Swahili: blanketi

• comforter
• doona
• duvet
• quilt

blanket (not comparable) (only attributive)

1. General; covering or encompassing everything.

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

   • 1994, Deborah Dash Moore, To the Golden Cities:

     Another observer offered a less blanket criticism.

   • 2009, Gayle Letherby, Kate Williams, Philip Birch, Sex as Crime, page 57:

     Some others appear to be adopting a more blanket approach

   • 2010, Jay Cassell, The Best Hunting Stories Ever Told, page 428:

     Disenchanted with socialism, they unleashed free enterprise (or tried to) and backed it up with a more-or-less blanket endorsement of the old ways.

   • 2013, Eric Schopler, Gary B. Mesibov, (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 187:

     By contrast, any emotional or motivational explanation of autism would seem to predict too blanket a degree of social disinterest.

   • 2017, Mary Kreiner Ramirez; Steven A. Ramirez, The Case for the Corporate Death Penalty, page 207:

     The second reason offered for blanket nonprosecutions for crimes committed at the megabanks involves the possibility that such prosecutions could harm the economy.

   • 2021 October 15, “Stalin writes to four States CMs against blanket ban on firecrackers”, in The Hindu‎:

     Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Friday wrote to his counterparts in Delhi, Haryana, Odisha and Rajasthan urging them to reconsider the blanket ban on sale of firecrackers in their respective States.

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.

   A fresh layer of snow blanketed the area.

   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

     I'll […] blanket my loins.

   • 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter VIII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC:

     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. (transitive) To toss in a blanket by way of punishment.
   • 1609 December (first performance)​, Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Epicoene, or The Silent Woman. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Ben Jonson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

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

4. (transitive) To take the wind out of the sails of (another vessel) by sailing to windward of it.
5. (transitive) To nullify the impact of (someone or something).
6. Of a radio signal: to override or block out another radio signal.

blanket ?

1. form (document)

From English blanket.

blanket

1. blanket