Search results for 'blanket':

blanket noun 1 a thick covering of wool or other material, used to cover beds or for wrapping a person in for warmth. 2 a thick layer or mass which covers or obscures something • a blanket of fog. adj (used before the noun it describes) general; applying to or covering all cases, people, etc • blanket coverage • a blanket rule. verb (blanketed, blanketing) 1 to cover something with, or as if with, a blanket. 2 (often blanket something out) to keep it quiet, suppress it, or cover it up. 3 to cover or apply something in a general, comprehensive or indiscriminate way. on the blanket applied to IRA prisoners in jail: wearing blankets instead of prison clothes, as a protest against their having criminal rather than political status. born on the wrong side of the blanket illegitimately; out of wedlock.
ETYMOLOGY: 14c, originally meaning 'rough, undyed or white woollen fabric'; from French blankete, from blanc white.