Contextualizebeta

billet

noun
/ˈbɪlɪt/US

Etymology

From Middle English billet, bylet, belet, billette, from Old French billette, from bille (“log, tree trunk”), from Vulgar Latin *bilia, probably of Gaulish origin (compare Old Irish bile (“tree”)).

  1. derived from *bilia✻
  2. derived from billette
  3. inherited from billet

Definitions

  1. 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[…]
    • On their return home, however, she was greatly consoled by Lady Mandeville's reading aloud a billet from Edward Lorraine, regretting that unexpected business,...

  2. A written order to quarter soldiers.

  3. A sealed ticket for a draw or lottery.

  4. ›+ 15 more definitions

    1. A place where a soldier is assigned to lodge.

    2. Temporary lodgings in a private residence, such as is organised for members of a visiting…

      Temporary lodgings in a private residence, such as is organised for members of a visiting sports team.

    3. An allocated space or berth in a boat or ship.

    4. Berth

      Berth; position.

      • His shafts of satire fly straight to their billet, and there they rankle.
      • The blind man laughed and a substantial coin found its billet in the caretaker's never-reluctant palm.

    5. To lodge soldiers, or guests, usually by order.

      • Billeted in so antiquated a mansion.
      • Destroy, with entire unpity, raze to the ground, those detestable houses where you billet the progeny of the libertinage of the poor, appalling cloacas, wherefrom there every day spews forth into society a swarm of new-made creatures […]

    6. To lodge, or be quartered, in a private house.

    7. To direct, by a ticket or note, where to lodge.

    8. A semi-finished length of metal.

      • The Saturday evening Cardiff-West Wales mail train is still steam-worked, but a most unlikely locomotive used on May 23 was Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 No. 45250 (5A); it returned on May 25 with a train of steel billets.

    9. A short piece of wood, especially one used as firewood.

      • They shall beat out my brains with billets.
      • I cannot part your hair on my knee, fetch a billet of wood.

    10. A short cutting of sugar cane produced by a harvester or used for planting.

    11. A rectangle used as a charge on an escutcheon.

    12. An ornament in Norman work, resembling a billet of wood, either square or round.

    13. A strap that enters a buckle.

    14. A loop that receives the end of a buckled strap.

    15. Alternative form of billard (“coalfish”).

The neighborhood

Derived

billet reading, billetable, billetee, rebillet, billet barge, billethead, billetless, billetwood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for billet. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA