different between blanket vs swathe

English

Etymology

From Middle English blanket, blonket, from Old Northern French blanket, blankete, blanquette (Modern French blanchet), diminutive of blanc (“white”). More at blank. Apparently cognate to blunket, plunket.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?blæ?k?t/
• Rhymes: -æ?k?t

Noun

blanket (plural blankets)

1. A heavy, loosely woven fabric, usually large and woollen, used for warmth while sleeping or resting.

   The baby was cold, so his mother put a blanket over him.

   • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room Chapter 1

     The little boys in the front bedroom had thrown off their blankets and lay under the sheets.

2. A layer of anything.

   The city woke under a thick blanket of fog.

3. A thick rubber mat used in the offset printing process to transfer ink from the plate to the paper being printed.

   A press operator must carefully wash the blanket whenever changing a plate.

4. A streak or layer of blubber in whales.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• comforter
• doona
• duvet
• quilt

Adjective

blanket (comparative more blanket, superlative most blanket)

1. General; covering or encompassing everything.

Synonyms

• all-encompassing, exhaustive; see also Thesaurus:comprehensive

Translations

Verb

blanket (third-person singular simple present blankets, present participle blanketing, simple past and past participle blanketed)

1. (transitive) To cover with, or as if with, a blanket.

   A fresh layer of snow blanketed the area.

   • 1884: Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter VIII

     I see the moon go off watch, and the darkness begin to blanket the river.

2. (transitive) To traverse or complete thoroughly.

   The salesman blanketed the entire neighborhood.

3. (transitive) To toss in a blanket by way of punishment.
   • 1609, Ben Jonson, Epicœne, or The Silent Woman

     We'll have our men blanket 'em i' the hall.

4. (transitive) To take the wind out of the sails of (another vessel) by sailing to windward of it.
5. (transitive) To nullify the impact of (someone or something).
6. Of a radio signal: to override or block out another radio signal.

Translations

Danish

Noun

blanket

1. form (document)

Tok Pisin

Etymology

From English blanket.

Noun

blanket

1. blanket

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /swe?ð/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sw?ð/, /swe?ð/, /sw?ð/
• Rhymes: -e?ð

Etymology 1

From Middle English swathe, swath, from Old English swaþu, swæþ (“bandage”), probably akin to Old English swaþul, sweþel (“a swathe, wrap, band, bandage”).

Noun

swathe (plural swathes)

1. A bandage; a band

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English swathen, from Old English *swaþian, akin to Old English besweþian (“to swathe, swaddle”).

Verb

swathe (third-person singular simple present swathes, present participle swathing, simple past and past participle swathed)

1. To bind with a swathe, band, bandage, or rollers
   • 1664, A briefe description of the whole world wherein is particularly described all the monarchies, empires, and kingdoms of the same, with their academies, as also their severall titles and scituations thereunto adjoyning, Archbishop Abbot, quoted in A Dictionary of the English Language, Samuel Johnson, 1755

     Their children are never swathed, or bound about with any thing when they are first born' but are put naked into the bed with their parents to lie.

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4

     The head was swathed in linen bands that had been white, but were now stained and discoloured with damp, but of this I shall not speak more, and beneath the chin-cloth the beard had once escaped.

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English swathe, from Old English swaþu (“track, trace”), from Proto-Germanic *swaþ?. More at swath.

Noun

swathe (plural swathes)

1. (chiefly British) Alternative spelling of swath
   • 2012, The Economist, Sep 29th 2012 issue, Venezuela’s presidential election: The autocrat and the ballot box

     As well as the advantages of abused office, Mr Chávez can boast enduring popularity among a broad swathe of poorer Venezuelans. They like him for his charisma, humble background and demotic speech.

Translations

Anagrams

• Wheats, saweth, wheats

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English swaþu, swæþ.

Alternative forms

• suaþe, swaþe

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?swa?ð(?)/, /?swa?/

Noun

swathe (plural swathez) (rare)

2. A strip or wrap, especially for wrapping babies in.

Related terms

• swathel, swethel
• swathen
• swathing

Descendants

• English: swaðe

References

• “sw??th(e, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-11-24.

Etymology 2

From Old English swaþu, from Proto-Germanic *swaþ?, from Proto-Indo-European *swem(b?)- (“to bend, turn, swing”).

Alternative forms

• swath, swað, swad
• (influenced by sward) swarth

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?swa?ð(?)/, /?swa?/

Noun

swathe (plural swathes)

2. A swath; the track left by a scythe.
3. (rare) A strip of land as a unit of measure.
4. (rare) A trace left behind by something.

Descendants

• English: swath, swathe
• Scots: swa, swarth

References

• “sw??th(e, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-11-24.