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Wet blanket   /wɛt blˈæŋkət/   Listen
noun
Blanket  n.  
1.
A heavy, loosely woven fabric, usually of wool, and having a nap, used in bed clothing; also, a similar fabric used as a robe; or any fabric used as a cover for a horse.
2.
(Print.) A piece of rubber, felt, or woolen cloth, used in the tympan to make it soft and elastic.
3.
A streak or layer of blubber in whales. Note: The use of blankets formerly as curtains in theaters explains the following figure of Shakespeare. "Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark To cry, "Hold, hold!""
Blanket sheet, a newspaper of folio size.
A wet blanket, anything which damps, chills, dispirits, or discourages.



adjective
Wet  adj.  (compar. wetter; superl. wettest)  
1.
Containing, or consisting of, water or other liquid; moist; soaked with a liquid; having water or other liquid upon the surface; as, wet land; a wet cloth; a wet table. "Wet cheeks."
2.
Very damp; rainy; as, wet weather; a wet season. "Wet October's torrent flood."
3.
(Chem.) Employing, or done by means of, water or some other liquid; as, the wet extraction of copper, in distinction from dry extraction in which dry heat or fusion is employed.
4.
Refreshed with liquor; drunk. (Slang)
Wet blanket, Wet dock, etc. See under Blanket, Dock, etc.
Wet goods, intoxicating liquors. (Slang)
Synonyms: Nasty; humid; damp; moist. See Nasty.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Wet blanket" Quotes from Famous Books



... probably true that the constant presence of a supervisor who is adversely critical may do injury to the efficiency of a good teacher. No one can teach as well under disapprobation as he can where he feels that his hands are free; and so in some places supervision may act as a wet blanket. It may suppress spontaneity, initiative, and real life in the school. But this is only an abuse of a good thing, and probably does not occur frequently. In any event, the exception would only prove the rule. Supervision is as necessary in a system ...
— Rural Life and the Rural School • Joseph Kennedy

... them at luncheon that we would come. I thought you'd enjoy it" (Her acceptance, which had been a real sacrifice to her, was a bomb to the other boarders. "What has happened?" they said to each other, blankly. "She'll be an awful wet blanket," some one said, frowning; and some one else said, "She's accepted because she won't let him ...
— The Vehement Flame • Margaret Wade Campbell Deland

... other public men, sometimes saw occasion to change his views, because not long ago he said, on a public occasion, that all he knew about Federation was, that it was a word spelt with ten letters, which was somewhat of a wet blanket to some of those who had reckoned upon Lord Salisbury as an ardent supporter. More recently he said, in reply to a question put to him at a public meeting at the East End of London, that geographical considerations would prevent the realization of such a scheme; but ...
— A Winter Tour in South Africa • Frederick Young

... away, an' his wife an' baby was home. He knowed, too, the way the wind was, thet the ranch-house would burn. It was a long chance he was takin'. But he went over, put the woman up behind him, wrapped the baby an' his hoss's haid in a wet blanket, an' rode away. Thet was sure some ride, I've heerd. But the fire ketched Monty at the last. The woman fell an' was lost, an' then his hoss. An' Monty ran an' walked an' crawled through the fire with thet ...
— The Light of Western Stars • Zane Grey

... to whom they were unable to impart the rights of the blood-royal—when the fairest specimen of modern sculpture has been supplied by a female hand, and woman, in short, is at a premium throughout the universe, all this waste of sermonizing should have been thrown, like a wet blanket, over her shoulders! ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine -- Volume 55, No. 340, February, 1844 • Various


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