Blanket

n. [Fr. blanchet, a woolen waistcoat or shirt, the blanket of a printing press; blanquette, a kind of white pear, from blanc, white. See BLANK.]

1. A coarse, loosely woven cover, usually of wool, for beds, horses, &c., to protect from cold; sometimes worn around the shoulders.
2. (Print.) Woolen cloth, or white baize, to lay between the tympans.
3. A kind of pear, sometimes called, after the French, blanquet.

☞ The use of blankets formerly as curtains in theaters explains the following figure of Shakespeare. Nares. Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, To cry, Hold, hold. Macbeth i. 5.