blank
adjEtymology
From Middle English blank, blonc, blaunc, blaunche, from Anglo-Norman blonc, blaunc, blaunche, from Old French blanc, feminine blanche, from Frankish *blank (“gleaming, white, blinding”), from Proto-Germanic *blankaz (“white, bright, blinding”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyǵ- (“to shine”). Akin to Old High German blanch (“shining, bright, white”) (German blank), Old English blanc (“white, grey”), blanca (“white steed”), Spanish blanco. More at blink, blind, blanch. Doublet of blanc.
Definitions
White or pale
White or pale; without colour.
- To the blanc Moone / Her office they preſcrib'd,
Free from writing, printing, or marks
Free from writing, printing, or marks; having an empty space to be filled in.
- blank paper
- a blank check
- a blank ballot
Lacking characteristics which give variety
Lacking characteristics which give variety; uniform.
- a blank desert; a blank wall; blank unconsciousness
- Not a cloud in the blank blue sky.
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Abject
Abject; absolute; complete; downright; sheer; utter.
- a blank refusal to cooperate
- There was a look of blank terror on his face.
Without expression, usually because of incomprehension.
- Failing to understand the question, he gave me a blank stare.
Utterly confounded or discomfited.
- Adam […] Aſtonied ſtood and Blank,
Empty
Empty; void; without result; fruitless; futile.
- a blank day
Devoid of thoughts, memory, or inspiration.
- The shock left his memory blank.
Of ammunition
Of ammunition: having propellant but no bullets; unbulleted.
- The recruits were issued blank rounds for a training exercise.
A small French coin, originally of silver, afterwards of copper, worth 5 deniers
A small French coin, originally of silver, afterwards of copper, worth 5 deniers; also a silver coin of Henry V current in the parts of France then held by the English, worth about 8 pence .
- Whosoeuer brought a fagot before the kynges tent, he shulde haue a blanke of Fraunce.
A nonplus [16th century].
The white spot in the centre of a target
The white spot in the centre of a target; hence (figuratively) the object to which anything is directed or aimed, the range of such aim .
- Des. […] And stood within the blank of his displeasure / For my free speech! (Act III, scene 11)
- Kent. See better, Lear, and let me still remain / The true blank of thine eye. (Act I, scene 2)
A lot by which nothing is gained
A lot by which nothing is gained; a ticket in a lottery on which no prize is indicated [since the 16th century].
- […] and in Fortune's Lottery lies / A heap of Blanks, like this, for one ſmall Prize.
An empty space
An empty space; a void, for example on a paper .
- Write your answers in the blanks.
A document, paper, or form with spaces left blank to be filled in at the pleasure of the…
A document, paper, or form with spaces left blank to be filled in at the pleasure of the person to whom it is given (e.g. a blank charter, ballot, form, contract, etc.), or as the event may determine; a blank form .
- […] and the freemen signified their approbation by an inscribed vote, and their dissent by a blank.
Blank verse .
A piece of material roughly cut, forged, cast, etc. to the size and shape of the thing to…
A piece of material roughly cut, forged, cast, etc. to the size and shape of the thing to be made, and ready for the finishing operations; (coining) the disc of metal before stamping .
A vacant space, place, or period
A vacant space, place, or period; a void [since the 17th century].
- Du. And what's her hiſtory? Vio. A blanke my Lord:
The ¹ / ₂₃₀₄₀₀ of a grain [17th century].
An empty space in one's memory
An empty space in one's memory; a forgotten item or memory [since the 18th century].
- My head is so ill that I cannot write a paper full as I used to do; and yet I will not forgive a blank of half an inch from you.
- From this time there ensues a long blank in the history of French legislation.
- “I was ill. I can't tell how long — it was a blank. […]”
A dash written in place of an omitted letter or word
The space character
The space character; the character resulting from pressing the space bar on a keyboard.
A domino without points on one or both of its divisions.
- the double blank
- the six blank
A tile that can be played as any letter and having a point value of zero.
Ellipsis of blank cartridge [since the 19th century].
- It was an unloaded gun that fired only blanks.
An ineffective effort which achieves nothing [since the 20th century].
To make void
To make void; to erase.
- I blanked out my previous entry.
To ignore (a person) deliberately.
- She blanked me for no reason.
- Taylor Swift goes viral for blanking Celine Dion on stage at Grammys 2024 […] Taylor Swift received backlash for being 'disrespectful' by 'ignoring' Celine Dion while accepting the award for Album of the Year at the Grammys on Sunday.
To render ineffective by blanketing with turbulent airflow, such as from aircraft wake or…
To render ineffective by blanketing with turbulent airflow, such as from aircraft wake or reverse thrust.
- At high angles of attack, the shuttle’s rudder is blanked by the fuselage and wings, forcing it to use its RCS thrusters for yaw control.
To prevent from scoring
To prevent from scoring; for example, in a sporting event.
- The team was blanked.
- England blanks Wales to advance to the final.
To become blank.
To experience a temporary lapse of memory
To experience a temporary lapse of memory; to be temporarily unable to remember a particular fact. (Commonly used in the first person, present progressive tense, and commonly followed by on to create a transitive phrasal verb.)
- I’m blanking on her name right now.
- She asked him a simple question during the interview, and he blanked.
A surname.
- The same preoccupation with developing a conceptual framework is evident in David Blank's Venezuela: Politics in a Petroleum Republic, a modified version of Blank's early theses.
Used as an anonymous placeholder for a person's name.
- Miss Compton, in 'Other People's Worries,' asks rhetorically whether a young rip was not in the Blank divorce case.
The neighborhood
- neighborBlankshire
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at blank. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at blank. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
6 hops · closes at blank
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA