What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Billet vs Blank - What's the difference?

billet | blank |

In transitive terms the difference between billet and blank

is that billet is to direct, by a ticket or note, where to lodge while blank is to prevent from scoring, as in a sporting event.

As nouns the difference between billet and blank

is that billet is a short informal letter while blank is a cartridge that is designed to simulate the noise and smoke of real gunfire without actually firing a projectile.

As verbs the difference between billet and blank

is that billet is to lodge soldiers, usually by order while blank is to make void; to erase.

As an adjective blank is

white or pale; without colour.

billet

English

(wikipedia billet)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) bylet, from (etyl) .

Noun

(en noun)
  • A short informal letter.
  • *
  • However, when his cool reflections returned, he plainly perceived that his case was neither mended nor altered by Sophia's billet
  • A written order to quarter soldiers.
  • Etymology 2

    (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A place where a soldier is assigned to lodge.
  • * , chapter=19
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets .}}
  • * 1997 : Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault , page 9 (Totem Books, Icon Books; ISBN 1840460865)
  • 17 June 1940': Prime Minister Pétain requests armistice. Germans use the Foucaults’ holiday home as officers’ ' billet . Foucault steals firewood for school from collaborationist militia. Foucault does well at school, but messes up his summer exams in 1940.
  • An allocated space or berth in a boat or ship.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=10 , passage=The skipper Mr. Cooke had hired at Far Harbor was a God-fearing man with a luke warm interest in his new billet and employer, and had only been prevailed upon to take charge of the yacht after the offer of an emolument equal to half a year's sea pay of an ensign in the navy.}}

    Verb

  • To lodge soldiers, usually by order.
  • * (Washington Irving) (1783-1859)
  • Billeted in so antiquated a mansion.
  • To lodge, or be quartered, in a private house.
  • (label) To direct, by a ticket or note, where to lodge.
  • Etymology 3

    (etyl) billette, from ).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • metallurgy a semi-finished length of metal
  • a short piece of wood, especially one used as firewood
  • * Shakespeare
  • They shall beat out my brains with billets .
  • (heraldiccharge) A rectangle used as a charge on an escutcheon
  • (architecture) An ornament in Norman work, resembling a billet of wood either square or round.
  • (saddlery) A strap which enters a buckle.
  • A loop which receives the end of a buckled strap.
  • (Knight)

    blank

    English

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • (archaic) White or pale; without colour.
  • * Milton
  • To the blank moon / Her office they prescribed.
  • Free from writing, printing, or marks; having an empty space to be filled in; as, blank paper; a blank check; a blank ballot.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011
  • , date=December 27 , author=Mike Henson , title=Norwich 0 - 2 Tottenham , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Referee Michael Oliver failed to detect a foul in a crowded box and the Canaries escaped down the tunnel with the scoreline still blank .}}
  • (figurative) Lacking characteristics which give variety; uniform.
  • a blank''' desert; a '''blank''' wall; '''blank unconsciousness
  • Absolute; downright; unmixed; sheer.
  • blank terror
  • Without expression.
  • Failing to understand the question, he gave me a blank stare.
  • Utterly confounded or discomfited.
  • * Milton
  • Adam astonied stood, and blank .
  • Empty; void; without result; fruitless.
  • a blank day
  • Devoid of thoughts, memory, or inspiration. (rfex)
  • Descendants

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A cartridge that is designed to simulate the noise and smoke of real gunfire without actually firing a projectile.
  • An empty space; a void, as on a paper, or in one's memory.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • I cannot write a paper full, I used to do; and yet I will not forgive a blank of half an inch from you.
  • * Hallam
  • From this time there ensues a long blank in the history of French legislation.
  • * George Eliot
  • I was ill. I can't tell how long — it was a blank .
  • A space to be filled in on a form or template.
  • A paper without marks or characters, or with space left for writing; a ballot, form, contract, etc. that has not yet been filled in.
  • * Palfrey
  • The freemen signified their approbation by an inscribed vote, and their dissent by a blank .
  • A lot by which nothing is gained; a ticket in a lottery on which no prize is indicated.
  • * Dryden
  • In Fortune's lottery lies / A heap of blanks , like this, for one small prize.
  • (archaic) A kind of base silver money, first coined in England by Henry V., and worth about 8 pence; also, a French coin of the seventeenth century, worth about 4 pence.
  • (Nares)
  • (engineering) A piece of metal prepared to be made into something by a further operation, as a coin, screw, nuts.
  • (dominoes) A piece or division of a piece, without spots; as, the double blank"; the six blank." In blank, with an essential portion to be supplied by another; as, to make out a check in blank.
  • The space character; the character resulting from pressing the space-bar on a keyboard.
  • The point aimed at in a target, marked with a white spot; hence, the object to which anything is directed.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Let me still remain / The true blank of thine eye.
  • Aim; shot; range.
  • * Shakespeare
  • I have stood within the blank of his displeasure / For my free speech.
  • (chemistry) A sample for a control experiment that does not contain any of the analyte of interest, in order to deliberately produce a non-detection to verify that a detection is distinguishable from it.
  • Synonyms

    * (sense, bullet that doesn't harm) blank cartridge, blank bullet

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make void; to erase.
  • I blanked out my previous entry.
  • (slang) To ignore.
  • She blanked me for no reason.
  • To prevent from scoring, as in a sporting event.
  • The team was blanked .
  • To become blank.
  • Usage notes

    * Almost any sense of this can occur with (out). See (blank out).

    Derived terms

    * blank canvas * blank check * blank end * blankly * blankness * blank out * blank verse ----