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Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1941 (SND Vol. II). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BLANKET, n. Used as in St.Eng. but note the following. See also Blue Blanket.

1. A banner, in the phr. to say bo(o) to your (yer) blanket. See Bo, int.

2. Combs.: (1) Barred blanket, a tartan plaid.Abd. 1862 Bnffsh. Jnl. (24 June) 6:
The corpse of the suicide was wrapped in a tartan or what was then called a barred blanket. [In the Hist. Papers relating to the Jacobite period, ed. by Allardyce, Captain Scott reports from the Braemar Barracks (23rd July 1749) that he had apprehended a man for wearing a plaid and carrying a party-coloured great-coat under it. The local Justice of the Peace having refused to try the case, the Captain had to take his prisoner to Aberdeen. The Sheriff there would not convict the man, alleging that he was wearing a “dyed blanket” and not a plaid. On 20th August the Captain again reports: “I have taken up and sent to Aberdeen another Highlander for having a plaid of different colours which I think the Sheriff cannot call a blanket as he was pleased to call the other.” From this it would appear, that in order to escape the penalty for wearing Highland dress enforced after the '45 the plaid was dyed to hide its chequered pattern of different colours. It was then called a blanket. See Bar Plaid.]

(2) blanket bay [bəi],  bed.

(3) blanket-fair = (2), “Awa' tae blanket-fair” (Abd.⁴ 1929).

(4) Blanket-heezie, “one who tosses another in a blanket” (Sc. 1911 S.D.D.). See Heeze.

(5)  blanket preaching, an open-air religious service held annually at the lonely St Mary's Churchyard in Yarrow, Selkirkshire, as a reminiscence of the field-preaching of the Covenanters. The practice was begun by Dr James Russell, minister of Yarrow (1841-1883), and is so called because of a blanket or plaid hung up as an awning for the preacher. Slk. 1939 R. S. Kirkpatrick Blanket Preaching Title:
The Blanket Preaching being occasional sermons preached in St Mary's Churchy ard on the Fourth Sunday of July at the Annual Hill-Service. Slk. 1969 Scots Mag. (Oct.) 69:
Every year now, the Covenanters are commemorated in a service in the open air at St Mary's Kirk, called the "Blanket Preaching" because the Conventicle preacher had a blanket held over his head in inclement weather.

3. A form of the game "hie-spy" (Sc. 1911 S.D.D.; Ayr. 1975).