blanket

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
blanket/ˈblaŋkɪt/

▶noun

• 1 a large piece of woollen material used as a covering for warmth, as on a bed.

• 2 a thick mass or layer: a blanket of cloud.

• 3 a rubber surface used for transferring the image in ink from the plate to the paper in offset printing.

▶adjective covering all cases; total: a blanket ban on tobacco advertising. ▶verb (blankets, blanketing, blanketed)

• 1 cover completely with a thick layer.

• 2 Sailing take wind from the sails of (another craft) by passing to windward.

– phrases
born on the wrong side of the blanket dated illegitimate.

– derivatives
blanketing noun.

– origin ME: via Old North. Fr. from OFr. blanc ‘white’, ult. of Gmc origin.