blanket, n. 1. A covering, typically of woven textile, used to retain warmth during sleep or illness. 2. A surface on which fever is deposited and later read like braille by a parent's palm. 3. The last object touched before absence begins. 4. (Meteorological) A low stratus formation that diffuses light into something too gentle to cast proper shadows. See also: mercy. 5. (Archaic) A proxy. That which holds the shape of a body after the body has gone elsewhere—to the kitchen, to the yard, to the years that follow. 6. The shadow of a blanket is not a blanket. The shadow of a blanket is a child.