blanketing

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blan·ket

(blăng′kĭt)

1. A large piece of woven material used as a covering for warmth, especially on a bed.

2. A layer that covers or encloses: a thick blanket of snow.

adj.

1. Applying to or covering all conditions or instances: a blanket insurance policy.

2. Applying to or covering all members of a class: blanket sanctions against human-rights violators.

tr.v. blan·ket·ed, blan·ket·ing, blan·kets

1. To cover with or as if with a blanket: leaves that blanket the ground.

2. To cover so as to inhibit, suppress, or extinguish: blanketed the grease fire with sand.

3. To apply to generally and uniformly without exception: high telephone service charges that blanketed our region.

[Middle English, from Old French, an unbleached soft cloth, from blanc, white, of Germanic origin; see bhel- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

References in classic literature ?

It is by reason of this cosy blanketing of his body, that the whale is enabled to keep himself comfortable in all weathers, in all seas, times, and tides.

View in context

He tried to climb from his horse on to the top of the wall, but he was so bruised and battered that he could not even dismount; and so from the back of his horse he began to utter such maledictions and objurgations against those who were blanketing Sancho as it would be impossible to write down accurately: they, however, did not stay their laughter or their work for this, nor did the flying Sancho cease his lamentations, mingled now with threats, now with entreaties but all to little purpose, or none at all, until from pure weariness they left off.