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blanketing

[blang-ki-ting]
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noun
  1. blankets: The blanketing was too warm.
  2. Radio. the effect of a signal from a powerful transmitter that interferes with or prevents the reception of other signals.
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Origin of blanketing

First recorded in 1570–80; blanket + -ing1

blanket

[blang-kit]
noun
  1. a large, rectangular piece of soft fabric, often with bound edges, used especially for warmth as a bed covering.
  2. a similar piece of fabric used as a covering for a horse, dog, etc.
  3. the chief garment traditionally worn by some American Indians.
  4. any extended covering or layer: a blanket of snow.
  5. Printing.
    1. (in a press for offset printing) the rubber-covered cylinder to which an inked impression is transferred from the plate for transfer directly to the paper.
    2. (in a press for letterpress printing) the resilient covering on the cylinder against which the paper is pressed in printing.
  6. a thick roll or strip of material for thermal insulation.
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verb (used with object)
  1. to cover with or as with a blanket: wild flowers blanketing the hillside.
  2. to obscure or obstruct; interfere with; overpower (usually followed by out): An electrical storm blanketed out the radio program.
  3. to toss (someone) in a blanket, as in fraternity hazing.
  4. Nautical. (of a vessel) to take wind from the sails of (another vessel) by passing closely to windward.
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adjective
  1. covering or intended to cover a large group or class of things, conditions, situations, etc.: a blanket proposal; a blanket indictment.
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Idioms
  1. born on the wrong side of the blanket, born out of wedlock.
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Origin of blanket

1250–1300; Middle English < Anglo-French, Old French, equivalent to blanc white (see blank) + -et -et
Related formsblan·ket·less, adjectiveblan·ket·like, adjectiveun·blan·ket·ed, adjective

Synonyms

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4. cover, coat, mantle, overlay, coating.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

burycoatobscureenvelopsurroundhideoverlayconcealmaskovercastcrowncloaksuppresseclipsecloudoverspread

Examples from the Web for blanketing

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • He was blanketing his horse, and Isabel had flown into the sitting-room.

    Tiverton Tales

    Alice Brown

  • When we find Craven, we'll find the contraption that's blanketing Jupiter and its moons.

    Empire

    Clifford Donald Simak

  • And there was a mound of blanketing above the actual place where the grenade might be.

    Space Platform

    Murray Leinster

  • He was afraid of the blanketing, saturating weight of the stillness.

  • The result is not a woven cloth, but a sort of felt, a blanketing.

    Insect Adventures

    J. Henri Fabre

British Dictionary definitions for blanketing

blanket

noun
  1. a large piece of thick cloth for use as a bed covering, animal covering, etc, enabling a person or animal to retain natural body heat
  2. a concealing cover or layer, as of smoke, leaves, or snow
  3. a rubber or plastic sheet wrapped round a cylinder, used in offset printing to transfer the image from the plate, stone, or forme to the paper
  4. physics a layer of a fertile substance placed round the core of a nuclear reactor as a reflector or absorber and often to breed new fissionable fuel
  5. (modifier) applying to or covering a wide group or variety of people, conditions, situations, etcblanket insurance against loss, injury, and theft
  6. born on the wrong side of the blanket informal illegitimate
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verb (tr)
  1. to cover with or as if with a blanket; overlie
  2. to cover a very wide area, as in a publicity campaign; give blanket coverage
  3. (usually foll by out) to obscure or suppressthe storm blanketed out the TV picture
  4. nautical to prevent wind from reaching the sails of (another sailing vessel) by passing to windward of it
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Word Origin

C13: from Old French blancquete, from blanc; see blank
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for blanketing

blanket

n.

c.1300, "bed-clothing; white woolen stuff," from Old French blanchet "light wool or flannel cloth; an article made of this material," diminutive of blanc "white" (see blank (adj.), which had a secondary sense of "a white cloth." Wet blanket (1830) is from the notion of a person who throws a damper on social situations like a wet blanket smothers a fire. In U.S. history, a blanket Indian (1859) was one using the traditional garment instead of wearing Western dress.

Only 26,000 blanket Indians are left in the United States. ["Atlantic Monthly," March 1906]
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blanket

v.

c.1600, "to cover with or as with a blanket;" also "to toss in a blanket" (as punishment), from blanket (n.). Related: Blanketed; blanketing.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

Idioms and Phrases with blanketing

blanket

see security blanket; wet blanket.

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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.