Forms: 4 blenket, 4–6 blankette, 5–7 blankett, 6–7 blanquet, blanchet, blancket, 3– blanket. [a. OF. blankete, blanquette blanket, f. blanc white + dim. suffix -ette; see blanchētus, -um in Ducange. Cf. BLUNKET. (The Thomas Blanket to whom gossip attributes the origin of the name, if he really existed, doubtless took his name from the article.)]
† 1. A white or undyed woollen stuff used for clothing. Obs.
c. 1300. Beket, 1167. Blak was his cope above: his curtel whit blanket.
c. 1420. Anturs Arth., xxix. Her belte was of blenket … Beten with besandus, and bocult ful bene.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 38. Blankett, lawngelle, langellus.
[1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xxii. 575. Blanket being undyed stuff. Ibid., 576. Blanket, or coarse woollen cloth, was woven at Witney nearly 500 years ago.]
2. A large oblong sheet of soft loose woollen cloth, used for the purpose of retaining heat, chiefly as one of the principal coverings of a bed; also for throwing over a horse, and, by savages or destitute persons, for clothing. Tossing in a blanket was a rough irregular mode of punishment.
‘Blankets’ are now also made of cotton, of paper, etc.
1346. Test. Ebor., I. (1836), 23, Ij. lintheamina cum uno blanket.
1392. Langl., P. Pl., C. X. 254. Noþer blankett in hus bed.
1444. Test. Ebor., II. (1855), 111. A pair of blankettis.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. iv. 241. A rascally Slaue, I will tosse the Rogue in a Blanket.
1606. Holland, Sueton., 17 Annot. A light blanquet or quilt.
1639. J. W., trans. Guibert’s Char. Physic, II. 66. Three or foure blanchets of Cotton hemmed.
1682. Dryden, Mac Fl., 42. The like was ne’er in Epsom blankets tost.
1711. Budgell, Spect., No. 150, ¶ 3. Had Tully himself pronounced one of his Orations with a Blanket about his Shoulders.
1713. Steele, Guardian, No. 72 (1756), I. 319. I have … more than once seen the discipline of the blanket administred to the offenders.
1876. Jevons, Logic Prim., 9. People are so accustomed to use blankets to make themselves warm that they are surprised to see blankets used to keep ice cold.
b. fig.
1605. Shaks., Macb. I. v. 54. Nor Heauen peepe through the Blanket of the darke, To cry, hold, hold.
1782. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Ode R. Acad., v. Wks. 1812, I. 23. The black blanket of Old Mother Night.
1828. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), I. 215. The blanket of the Night is drawn asunder.
3. Phrases: A wet blanket: a person or thing that throws a damper over anything, as a wet blanket smothers fire. Born on the wrong side of the blanket: said of an illegitimate child.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl., II. 185 (D.). I didn’t come on the wrong side of the blanket, girl.
1802. Morn. Post & Gaz., 14 April, 3/3. Mr. Sheridan has certainly put a wet blanket on Lord Belgrave’s intended motion of thanks to the late Administration.
1815. Scott, Guy M., I. 83 (D.). ‘Frank Kennedy,’ he said, ‘was a gentleman, though on the wrong side of the blanket.’
1830. Galt, Lawrie T., III. xiii. (1849), 128. I have never felt such a wet blanket before or syne.
1879. H. Spencer, Data of Ethics, xi. § 72. 194. He [a melancholy man] is called a wet blanket.
4. Printing. A woollen cloth used to cover the platten, so as to deaden and equalize its pressure.
1824. J. Johnson, Typogr., II. 648. The blankets must be of fine broad-cloth, or kerseymere.
1846. Print. Apparatus Amat., 11. The platten is therefore covered with a piece of thick woollen cloth called the blanket.
5. (See quot.)
1816. C. James, Mil. Dict. (ed. 4), 53. Blankets, combustible things made of coarse paper steeped in a solution of saltpetre, which, when dry, are again dipt in a composition of tallow, resin, and sulphur. They are used only in fire-ships.
6. transf. A layer of blubber in whales.
1885. Wood, in Longm. Mag., V. 548. The layer of blubber … called by whalers the ‘blanket.’
7. Attrib. and Comb., as blanket-bag, -cloth, -making, etc.; † blanket-love, illicit amours; blanket-sluice; blanket-weed (see quots.).
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xvi. 193. Skins and *blanket-bags.
1520. Sir R. Elyot, Will, in Elyot’s Gov. (1883), App. A. *Blanket cloth for blankettes.
c. 1683. (Title of Ballad) A true description of *Blanket Fair upon the river Thames in the time of the Great Frost.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Rich. II., ccxvi. Such *Blanket-Love.
1857. Ruskin, Pol. Econ. Art, i. 72. It is *blanket-making and tailoring we must set people to work at.
1868. H. C. Johnson, Argent. Alps, 113. Learning we had no beef, he ordered a fine *‘blanket piece’ to be cut off the entire side of the animal.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., *Blanket-sluices, sluices in which coarse blankets are laid, to catch the fine but heavy particles of gold, amalgam, etc., in the slime passing over them.
1879. G. Fennell, in Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 153. Weeds are often … troublesome in tanks or ponds … particularly the green filmy weed Cladophera, known as *‘blanket-weed.’
1711. Lond. Gaz., No. 4862/7. Her Majesty … hath been … pleased to Incorporate the *Blanket Weavers.
