Blanket
adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 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."
- 2 bedding that keeps a person warm in bed wordnet
- 3 A covering layer of anything.
"The city woke under a thick blanket of fog."
- 4 a layer of lead surrounding the highly reactive core of a nuclear reactor wordnet
- 5 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."
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- 6 anything that covers wordnet
- 7 A streak or layer of blubber in whales.
- 1 To cover with, or as if with, a blanket. attributive, transitive
"A fresh layer of snow blanketed the area."
- 2 cover as if with a blanket wordnet
- 3 To traverse or complete thoroughly. attributive, transitive
"The salesman blanketed the entire neighborhood."
- 4 form a blanket-like cover (over) wordnet
- 5 To toss in a blanket by way of punishment. attributive, transitive
"Hang him, poore grogran-raſcall, pray thee thinke not of him: I’le ſend for him to my lodging, and haue him blanketted when thou wilt, man."
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- 6 To take the wind out of the sails of (another vessel) by sailing to windward of it. attributive, transitive
- 7 To nullify the impact of (someone or something). attributive, transitive
- 8 Of a radio signal: to override or block out another radio signal. attributive
- 1 General; covering or encompassing everything. attributive, not-comparable
"Another observer offered a less blanket criticism."
- 1 broad in scope or content wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"I'm very sensitive to cold. May I have another blanket?"
Etymology
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”)).