blanket

Pluralblankets

Formsblankets, blanketing, blanketed

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A large covering of thick, loosely woven fabric, usually wool, that keeps a person warm in bed or while resting.

   He wrapped a wool blanket around his shoulders by the fire.

   The children dragged their blankets out to build a fort.

   Similarthrow, rug

   Note

   The cloth was named for its color before its warmth. Middle English blanket came from Old Northern French blanket or blancet, a word for white woolen cloth that could also mean a white horse. It is the layer laid over the sheets: Virginia Woolf's boys in Jacob's Room (1922) 'had thrown off their blankets and lay under the sheets.' Later meanings such as a blanket of fog borrow its spread-over-everything shape.

2. 2
   adjectivebefore a noun

   General in scope, applying to all cases or members of a group without exception.

   The company imposed a blanket policy covering every department.

   Critics argued the blanket restrictions ignored individual circumstances.

   Similarcomprehensive, broad, overall, sweeping, thorough

   Oppositespecific, selective, targeted

   Note

   It works only in front of a noun: blanket criticism, a blanket approach, blanket endorsement. A policy can be a blanket policy, but it is not called 'blanket' after a verb. Logic says what covers everything cannot cover more, yet writers grade it freely, as in Deborah Dash Moore's 'a less blanket criticism' (1994) and Schopler and Mesibov's 'too blanket a degree' (2013). Writers who want a comparison can switch to sweeping or broad.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A layer of something that spreads over and covers a surface completely.

   A blanket of ash settled over the rooftops after the eruption.

   Beneath a blanket of fallen leaves, the path was barely visible.

   Similarlayer, carpet, covering, mantle, coat

   Note

   The figure has hardened into a set pattern: a blanket of fog, of snow, of ash, nearly always with of naming the material. Engineers use it literally for a laid course of fill. A 1948 Railway Magazine report on Clapham Junction puts 'a 12 in. blanket of quarry waste' beneath the ballast, so the word can carry a measured thickness as well as an atmosphere.

4. 4
   verbtransitivebefore a noun

   To cover something with, or as if with, a layer spread over the top.

   Volunteers blanket the shelter floor with spare bedding each night.

   Dense smoke blanketed the entire neighborhood within minutes.

   Similarcover, envelop, smother, carpet, cloak

   Note

   Literal and figurative uses run side by side. Shakespeare's speaker vows to 'blanket my loins,' wrapping himself in actual cloth. Mark Twain lets darkness 'blanket the river' in 1884, which is the image that now dominates, with snow, fog and smoke as its typical subjects. Some writing doubles the t in the past and participle forms, as in Edwin Samuel's 'blanketted' (1963). US spelling keeps one t: blanketed, blanketing.

5. 5
   verbtransitivebefore a noun

   To pass through or work through something completely, leaving no part untouched.

   Investigators blanket the district, knocking on every door.

   The campaign blanketed every county before election day.

   Similarcomb, canvass, cover, saturate

6. 6
   verbtransitivebefore a noun

   To suppress or cancel out the impact of a person or thing so it has no effect.

   Defenders blanket the league's top scorer whenever they meet.

   The committee's veto blanketed every proposal the group raised.

   Similarneutralize, smother, stifle, nullify, suppress

7. 7
   verbtransitivebefore a noun

   To overpower or drown out another radio signal, as a strong transmitter or jamming device does.

   Powerful transmitters often blanket nearby channels across the dial.

   The jamming device blanketed every emergency frequency in the region.

   Similarjam, swamp, block

8. 8
   nouncountable

   A thick rubber mat used in offset printing to transfer ink from the plate to the paper.

   A nick in the blanket left a faint line down every printed page.

   Press operators wash the blanket between runs to keep images sharp.

9. 9
   nouncountable

   A streak or layer of blubber lying beneath the skin of a whale.

   Workers stripped the blanket from the carcass in long strips.

   The whale's blanket yielded gallons of oil once rendered down.

   Similarblubber

10. 10
    verbtransitivebefore a noun

    To take the wind from another vessel's sails by sailing on its windward side.

    Skilled crews blanket their opponents to steal the breeze.

    The schooner blanketed the smaller sloop just before the finish.

11. 11
    verbtransitivebefore a noun

    To toss someone repeatedly into the air in a stretched blanket as a punishment.

    Sailors would blanket any shipmate who broke the unwritten rules.

    The cadets blanketed the offender behind the barracks.

    Note

    A punishment straight out of Ben Jonson's comedies. In Cynthia's Revels (1600), one character offers to 'have him blanketted,' and in Epicoene (1609), another promises that 'our men' will 'blanket 'hem i' the hall.' Notice the causative construction: the speaker has someone blanketed by others rather than doing the tossing himself, because it is a group's work.

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