Definition of "shawl"

Just then Norbourne entered the chamber; and, fancying from her attitude that his wife was asleep, he approached softly, and drew a large shawl around her.

1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn, […], page 60

Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps, […] , and the light of the reflector fell full upon her.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.

Jessamy turned. Her uplifted candle showed a dark handsome young women in a black dress. She wore a wide shawl over her head which hung down on either side, only partially hiding a starched, white apron..

1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, page 26

Rebecca was shawling her in an upper apartment , where these two friends had an opportunity for a little of that secret talking and conspiring which forms the delight of female life

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848