blanket
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈblæŋkɪt/
ipa: [ˈblæŋkɪt]
ipa: [ˈble(ɪ)ŋkɪt]
ipa: [ˈblaŋkɪt]
ipa: [ˈblæːŋkɪt]
ipa: [ˈblaŋkɪt]
rhymes: -æŋkɪt
Forms: form: blankets
form: blanketing
form: blanketting
form: blanketed
form: blanketed
form: blanketted
form: blanketted
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”)).
Senses: examples: text: A fresh layer of snow blanketed the area.
text: […] / I will preſerue my ſelfe, and am bethought / To take the baſeſt and moſt pooreſt ſhape, / That euer penury in contempt of man, / Brought neare to beaſt, my face ile grime with filth, / Blanket my loynes, elſe all my haire with knots, / And with preſented nakedness outface, / The wind, and perſecution of the skie, / […]
ref: c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […], published 1608, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:
text: I see the moon go off watch and the darkness begin to blanket the river.
ref: 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, page 64:
text: The whole world was shut away outside in blood-red glory, as he rocked in his cradle on the immaculate sea, where the warm air blanketted him above the water sheets cold below.
ref: 1963, Edwin Samuel, “Sun in My Eyes”, in My Friend Musa and Other Stories, London; New York, N.Y.; Toronto, Ont.: Abelard-Schuman, →LCCN, page 3:
text: Leaping lightly on his back he led the grateful horse in an easy canter back to the stable where he waited and watched as the stable girl rubbed him down and blanketted him.
ref: 1992, Ann C. Fallon, Dead Ends: A James Fleming Mystery, New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 127:
text: The noise of the fire silenced the seabirds. Then snow blanketted the fire. Birds sang in the snow, and I awoke.
ref: 1994, Harold Brodkey, “Changing Room or What a Profane Friendship Is Like”, in Profane Friendship, San Francisco, Calif.: Mercury House, →ISBN, page 151:
text: In another damaging twist, former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis, who blanketed television networks after President Joe Biden’s victory to falsely claim he was elected because of fraud, reached a plea deal with Georgia prosecutors.
ref: 2023 October 25, Stephen Collinson, “Trump rages as former acolytes turn against him under legal heat”, in CNN:
glosses: To cover with, or as if with, a blanket.
examples: text: The salesman blanketed the entire neighborhood.
glosses: To traverse or complete thoroughly.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1600 (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Cynthias Reuels, or The Fountayne of Selfe-Loue. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, Act III, scene ii, page 209:
text: Wee'll haue our men blanket 'hem i' the hall.
ref: 1609 December (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Epicoene, or The Silent Woman. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, Act V, scene iiii:
glosses: To toss in a blanket by way of punishment.
glosses: To take the wind out of the sails of (another vessel) by sailing to windward of it.
glosses: To nullify the impact of (someone or something).
glosses: Of a radio signal: to override or block out another radio signal.