blanketing

Noun

blanketing (countable and uncountable, plural blanketings)

1. Cloth for making blankets.
   • But, now-a-days, many of them wear their Apparel of a dark brown colour, almost like Heath, that so, lying in the Heath-bushes, they might not, in the day-time, be discovered by their Cloaths. Being rather loosly happ’d, than closely covered, with this sort of Blanketing, they endure the fiercest...1690, uncredited translator, The History of Scotland by George Buchanan, London: Awnsham Churchil, Book I, p. 23
   • Then the blanketing tickles—you feel like mixed pickles—so terribly sharp is the pricking,
     And you’re hot, and you’re cross, and you tumble and toss till there’s nothing ’twixt you and the ticking.1882, W. S. Gilbert, Iolanthe, London: Chappell, act II, page 30
2. (countable) A layer of something that covers like a blanket.
   • blanketings of snow
   • Did one want grilled mushrooms, English fashion, they were there, black and moist and sizzling, and extremely edible; did one desire mushrooms à la Russe, they appeared, blanched and cool and toothsome under their white blanketing of sauce.1914, Saki, chapter 4, in When William Came, London: John Lane, page 64
3. The act or punishment of tossing in a blanket.
   • Himself among the storied chiefs he spies,
     As from the blanket high in air he flies,
     And oh! (he cry'd) what street, what lane but knows
     Our purgings, pumpings, blanketings and blows?1728, [Alexander Pope], “Book the Second”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin; London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC, page 22
   • […] that affair of the blanketing happened to thee, for the fault thou wast guilty of […]1755, Miguel de Cervantes, translated by Tobias Smollett, The History and Adventures of the Renowned Don Quixote, London: A. Millar, Volume I, Book 3, Chapter 5, p. 108
4. (slang) A maneuver in which one vessel covers or becalms another with its sails.
   • The latter hailed for water, and was so much more nimble in coming round, that she managed to get on ‘Gwendolin’s’ weather before she had gathered way, and gave her such a complete blanketing as left her almost in irons.1894, Edward Sullivan et al., Yachting, London: Longmans, Green, Volume I, Chapter , p. 144
5. The provision of a layer under the trackbed to prevent clay subsoil and water being forced to the surface by the weight of trains.
   • The track blanketing required excavation of up and down main lines to a depth of 4½ft below rail level for 1⅜ miles, to allow the defective track bed to be removed and replaced by a new formation. [...] a layer of polythene was employed by the E.R. at the base of the new formation; [...] On top of...1962 July, “Talking of Trains: Big E.R. track blanketing job”, in Modern Railways, page 6