COVERLET

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does coverlet mean? 

• COVERLET (noun)
  The noun COVERLET has 1 sense:

1. a decorative bedspread (usually quilted)

  Familiarity information: COVERLET used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COVERLET (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A decorative bedspread (usually quilted)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("coverlet" is a kind of...):

bed cover; bed covering; bedcover; bedspread; counterpane; spread (decorative cover for a bed)

Derivation:

cover (bedding that keeps a person warm in bed)

 Context examples 

Van Helsing stepped forward and drew the coverlet gently over her body, whilst Art, after looking at her face for an instant despairingly, ran out of the room.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I folded my shawl double, and spread it over me for a coverlet; a low, mossy swell was my pillow.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

My sobs kept waking me, for a long time; and when one very strong sob quite hoisted me up in bed, I found my mother sitting on the coverlet, and leaning over me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

By the same computation, they provided me with sheets, blankets, and coverlets, tolerable enough for one who had been so long inured to hardships.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

His eyes had the brightness of fever, there was a hectic flush upon either cheek, and dark crusts clung to his lips; the thin hands upon the coverlet twitched incessantly, his voice was croaking and spasmodic.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But there came a time when during the fever fits she began to talk in a hoarse, broken voice, to play on the coverlet as if on her beloved little piano, and try to sing with a throat so swollen that there was no music left, a time when she did not know the familiar faces around her, but addressed them by wrong names, and called imploringly for her mother.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The doctors say that it is all up with the old dear unless some food is got into him, but as he lies in bed with a revolver on his coverlet, and swears he will put six of the best through anyone that comes near him, there's been a bit of a strike among the serving-men.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I shall not trouble the reader with the particular account of my reception at this court, which was suitable to the generosity of so great a prince; nor of the difficulties I was in for want of a house and bed, being forced to lie on the ground, wrapped up in my coverlet.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The clocks were striking midnight and the rooms were very still as a figure glided quietly from bed to bed, smoothing a coverlet here, settling a pillow there, and pausing to look long and tenderly at each unconscious face, to kiss each with lips that mutely blessed, and to pray the fervent prayers which only mothers utter.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I seized a large man of war, tied a cable to the prow, and, lifting up the anchors, I stripped myself, put my clothes (together with my coverlet, which I carried under my arm) into the vessel, and, drawing it after me, between wading and swimming arrived at the royal port of Blefuscu, where the people had long expected me: they lent me two guides to direct me to the capital city, which is of the same name.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)