blanket
/ˈblæŋ.kɪt/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.07 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A heavy, loosely woven fabric, usually large and woollen, used for warmth while sleeping or resting.
noun
A thick rubber mat used in the offset printing process to transfer ink from the plate to the paper being printed.
adj
Example Sentences
- "The baby was cold, so his mother put a blanket over him."
- "The little boys in the front bedroom had thrown off their blankets and lay under the sheets."
- "The city woke under a thick blanket of fog."
- "In this case, the excavations were carried down to a depth of 3 ft. 9 in. below rail level, and pre-cast concrete slabs were laid between a 12 in. blanket of quarry waste and the ballast."
- "There was no difficulty in sighting the semaphores from this timely warning to each one; but it would have been another matter if the driver had to peer continuously into that white blanket [fog] looking for them without any pre-warning."
- "A press operator must carefully wash the blanket whenever changing a plate."
Etymology
Inherited 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”)).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: blanket, -
Usage
Inflected Forms
blanket A dog wrapped within a blanket (canonical)
blankets (plural)
blankets (present, singular)
blanketing (participle, present)
blanketting (participle, present)
blanketed (participle, past)
blanketed (past)
blanketted (participle, past)
blanketted (past)