blank
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /blæŋk/
rhymes: -æŋk
Forms: form: blanks
Etymology: 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.
Senses: examples: text: Whosoeuer brought a fagot before the kynges tent, he shulde haue a blanke of Fraunce.
ref: 1523, Jean Froissart, transl. by John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners, Cronycles of Englande, Fraunce etc.:
glosses: 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 .
glosses: A nonplus [16th century].
examples: text: Des. […] And stood within the blank of his displeasure / For my free speech! (Act III, scene 11)
ref: 1603, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice:
text: Kent. See better, Lear, and let me still remain / The true blank of thine eye. (Act I, scene 2)
ref: 1606, William Shakespeare, King Lear:
glosses: 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 .
examples: text: […] and in Fortune's Lottery lies / A heap of Blanks, like this, for one ſmall Prize.
ref: 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, Thomas Creech, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC, page 257:
glosses: A lot by which nothing is gained; a ticket in a lottery on which no prize is indicated [since the 16th century].
examples: text: Write your answers in the blanks.
glosses: An empty space; a void, for example on a paper .
A space to be filled in on a form or template.
glosses: An empty space; a void, for example on a paper .
Provisional words printed in italics (instead of blank spaces) in a bill before Parliament, being matters of practical detail, of which the final form is to be settled in committee .
examples: text: […] and the freemen signified their approbation by an inscribed vote, and their dissent by a blank.
ref: 1859, John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England, volume 1:
glosses: 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 .
glosses: 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 .
An empty form without substance; anything insignificant; nothing at all .
glosses: 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 .
An unprinted leaf of a book [20th century].
topics: literature
media
publishing
glosses: Blank verse .
topics: engineering
mechanical-engineering
mechanics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: 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 .
Any article of glass on which subsequent processing is required [since the 19th century].
topics: engineering
mechanical-engineering
mechanics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: 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 .
The shaved wax ready for placing on a recording machine for making wax records with a stylus [20th century].
qualifier: electric recording
examples: text: Du. And what's her hiſtory?
Vio. A blanke my Lord:
ref: c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv], page 263, column 1:
glosses: A vacant space, place, or period; a void [since the 17th century].
glosses: The ¹ / ₂₃₀₄₀₀ of a grain [17th century].
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1736, Jonathan Swift, Letters:
text: From this time there ensues a long blank in the history of French legislation.
ref: 1818, Henry Hallam, View of the State of Europe During the Middle Ages:
text: “I was ill. I can't tell how long — it was a blank. […]”
ref: 1863, George Eliot, Romola:
glosses: An empty space in one's memory; a forgotten item or memory [since the 18th century].
glosses: A dash written in place of an omitted letter or word
glosses: The space character; the character resulting from pressing the space bar on a keyboard.
examples: text: the double blank
text: the six blank
topics: dominoes
games
glosses: A domino without points on one or both of its divisions.
topics: Scrabble
board-games
games
qualifier: Words With Friends
glosses: A tile that can be played as any letter and having a point value of zero.
examples: text: It was an unloaded gun that fired only blanks.
topics: engineering
firearms
government
military
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
politics
tools
war
weaponry
glosses: Ellipsis of blank cartridge [since the 19th century].
topics: chemistry
hobbies
lifestyle
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sports
glosses: An ineffective effort which achieves nothing [since the 20th century].
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.
raw_tags: in the expression ‘shooting blanks’
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: An ineffective effort which achieves nothing [since the 20th century].
Infertile semen.
raw_tags: in the expression ‘shooting blanks’
Synonyms: sense: bullet that doesn't harm
word: blank cartridge
sense: bullet that doesn't harm
word: blank bullet