Billet

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈbɪlɪt/
• Rhymes: -ɪlɪt

From Middle English bylet, from Anglo-Norman billette ("list, schedule").

Full definition of billet

Noun

1. A short informal letter.
• Fielding Tom Jones|VI|xiiHowever, when his cool reflections returned, he plainly perceived that his case was neither mended nor altered by Sophia's billet...
2. A written order to quarter soldiers.

Middle French billette ("schedule"), from bullette, diminutive form of bulle ("document"), from Medieval Latin bulla ("document").

Noun

1. A place where a soldier is assigned to lodge.
• 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 19, 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.

Verb

1. (transitive, of a householder etc) to lodge soldiers, usually by order
• Washington IrvingBilleted in so antiquated a mansion.
2. (intransitive, of a soldier) to lodge, or be quartered, in a private house
3. (transitive) To direct, by a ticket or note, where to lodge.

Old French billette, from bille ("log, tree trunk"), from Vulgar Latin *bilia, probably of Gaulish origin (compare Old Irish bile ("tree")).

Noun

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