blank

Meanings

Adjective

• White or pale; without colour.
• Free from writing, printing, or marks; having an empty space to be filled in
• Lacking characteristics which give variety; uniform.
• Absolute; downright; sheer.
• Without expression.
• Utterly confounded or discomfited.
• Empty; void; without result; fruitless.
• Devoid of thoughts, memory, or inspiration.
• Of ammunition: having propellant but no bullets; unbulleted.

Noun

• 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 .
• A nonplus .
• The white spot in the centre of a target; hence the object to which anything is directed or aimed, the range of such aim .
• A lot by which nothing is gained; a ticket in a lottery on which no prize is indicated .
• An empty space; a void, for example on a paper .
• A document, paper, or form with spaces left blank to be filled up 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 .
• Blank verse .
• A piece of metal (such as a coin, screw, nuts), cut and shaped to the required size of the thing to be made, and ready for the finishing operations; the disc of metal before stamping .
• A vacant space, place, or period; a void .
• The ¹ / ₂₃₀₄₀₀ of a grain .
• An empty space in one's memory; a forgotten item or memory .
• A dash written in place of an omitted letter or word
• 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.
• An ineffective effort which achieves nothing .

Verb

• To make void; to erase.
• To ignore (a person) deliberately.
• To render ineffective by blanketing with turbulent airflow, such as from aircraft wake or reverse thrust.
• To prevent from scoring, for example in a sporting event.
• To become blank.
• To be temporarily unable to remember.

Related

Similar words

• blank cartridge, blank bullet

Origin

• 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, Spanish blanco. More at blink, blind, blanch. blanc.