DCHP-1 Online

Hudson's Bay blanket

• 1a a durable woollen blanket long sold by the Hudson's Bay Company.

  See also: Hudson's Bay (def. 3)  point blanket  

  • 1900  Prince wrapped a Hudson Bay blanket about her with a mock reverence more real than feigned. . . .
  • 1921  It is my experience that there is no easier way to get rid of a bad cold than to sleep out in the snow, wrapped in a Hudson's Bay blanket, a caribou robe, or a rabbit-skin quilt, when the thermometer is about fifty below zero.
  • 1963  I recall a motel in Manitoba that insisted we bring our muddy dogs indoors where they slept on scarlet Hudson's Bay blankets at the foot of the beds.

• 1b Figurative use. See quote.

  • 1939  (1951)  The blizzard is your greatest enemy. Then the fall of heavy flakes--which obliterates tracks and wipes out visibility--which in the North they call "Snowing Hudson's Bay blankets," has brought many of the hardiest travellers to losing their way.

• 2a Hist. See quotes.

  • 1897  The company had its own paper currency after 1825--"Hudson's Bay blankets" the notes were called.
  • 1923  The currency of the time [c1821] consisted largely of "Hudson's Bay blankets," which were notes for one pound, five shillings, and one shilling each.
  • 1963  The York factory, of the Hudson's Bay Co. also issued paper currency in the denominations of one Shilling, five Shilling and 1 Pound Notes. [These] . . . four and three quarters inches by nine and three eighths inches . . . known as "Hudson's Bay Blankets," were used extensively throughout Western Canada.

• 2b Hist. paper currency issued by the Hudson's Bay Company in the amounts of five shillings and five pounds.

  See also: Hudson's Bay bill  

  • 1896  I handled, in making my purchases, the first "Hudson's Bay blankets" I had every seen. These were large 5s. and £5 notes, issued by the Company. . . .
  • 1955  He also saw "Hudson's Bay blankets" for the first time. These were large five-shilling and five-pound notes issued by the Company.