Library / English Dictionary

BLANKET

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Bedding that keeps a person warm in bed

Example:

he pulled the covers over his head and went to sleep

Synonyms:

blanket; cover

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("blanket" is a kind of...):

bed clothing; bedclothes; bedding (coverings that are used on a bed)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "blanket"):

afghan (a blanket knitted or crocheted in strips or squares; sometimes used as a shawl)

electric blanket (a blanket containing and electric heating element that can be controlled to the desired temperature by a rheostat)

mackinaw; Mackinaw blanket (a thick plaid blanket formerly used in the northwestern United States)

manta (a blanket that is used as a cloak or shawl)

security blanket (a blanket (or toy) that a child carries around in order to reduce anxiety)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A layer of lead surrounding the highly reactive core of a nuclear reactor

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("blanket" is a kind of...):

bed; layer (single thickness of usually some homogeneous substance)

Holonyms ("blanket" is a part of...):

breeder reactor (a nuclear reactor that produces more fissile material than it burns)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Anything that covers

Example:

there was a blanket of snow

Synonyms:

blanket; mantle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("blanket" is a kind of...):

cover; covering; natural covering (a natural object that covers or envelops)

Derivation:

blanket (cover as if with a blanket)

blanket (form a blanket-like cover (over))

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Broad in scope or content

Example:

granted him wide powers

Synonyms:

across-the-board; all-embracing; all-encompassing; all-inclusive; blanket; broad; encompassing; extensive; panoptic; wide

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

comprehensive (including all or everything)

 III. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cover as if with a blanket

Example:

snow blanketed the fields

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "blanket" is one way to...):

cover (provide with a covering or cause to be covered)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sentence example:

The wind storms blanket the area with dust and dirt

Derivation:

blanket (anything that covers)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Form a blanket-like cover (over)

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "blanket" is one way to...):

cover; spread over (form a cover over)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sentence example:

Dust and dirt blanket the area

Derivation:

blanket (anything that covers)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Sure enough, he was squatting among his blankets beside his fire in his little camp.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Shivering, dripping, and crying, they got Amy home, and after an exciting time of it, she fell asleep, rolled in blankets before a hot fire.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

"Save me! save me!" he cried, and then looked round on the blanket of fog.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He found Pete where he had been killed in his blankets in the first moment of surprise.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Wrapping the limb in a heated blanket or warming the drugs or blood may help the drugs work better.

(Isolated Chemotherapeutic Limb Perfusion, NCI Dictionary)

It can grow so large that it blankets the surface of the tropical Atlantic Ocean from the west coast of Africa to the Gulf of Mexico.

(Satellites Find Biggest Seaweed Bloom in the World, NASA)

During cold periods, continental-scale ice sheets have blanketed large tracts of the Northern Hemisphere.

("Out of Tibet" hypothesis: Cradle of evolution for cold-adapted mammals is in Tibet, NSF)

Multiple worlds in our own solar system, including Titan, are blanketed by clouds and high-altitude hazes.

(Sunsets on Titan reveal the complexity of hazy exoplanets, NASA)

Their NeuroGrid consists of a collection of tiny electrodes linked together like the threads of a blanket, which is then laid across an area of the brain so that each electrode can continuously monitor the activity of a different set of neurons.

(Study shows how memories ripple through the brain, National Institutes of Health)

The research may help in the creation of genetically altered seaweeds that could be used as crops, assist in predicting the spread of seaweed pests, and – as climate warms and pollution possibly increases – control invasive seaweeds that blanket shorelines.

(Red seaweeds, including those in sushi, thrive despite ancestor's loss of genes, National Science Foundation)