Blank

Pronunciation

• IPA: /blæŋk/
• (also) US IPA: /bleɪŋk/
• Rhymes: -æŋk

Origin

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 *bhleg- ("to shine"). Akin to Old High German blanch ("shining, bright, white") (German blank), Old English blanc ("white, grey"), blanca ("white steed"), English blink, blind. See also blink, blind, and blanch.

Full definition of blank

Adjective

1. (archaic) White or pale; without colour.
• MiltonTo the blank moon
  Her office they prescribed.
2. Free from writing, printing, or marks; having an empty space to be filled in; as, blank paper; a blank check; a blank ballot.
• 2011, December 27, Mike Henson, Norwich 0 - 2 Tottenham, Referee Michael Oliver failed to detect a foul in a crowded box and the Canaries escaped down the tunnel with the scoreline still blank.
3. (figurative) Lacking characteristics which give variety; uniform.a blank desert; a blank wall; blank unconsciousness
4. Absolute; downright; unmixed; sheer.blank terror
5. Without expression.Failing to understand the question, he gave me a blank stare.
6. Utterly confounded or discomfited.
• MiltonAdam ... astonied stood, and blank.
7. Empty; void; without result; fruitless.a blank day
8. Devoid of thoughts, memory, or inspiration.

Noun

1. A cartridge that is designed to simulate the noise and smoke of real gunfire without actually firing a projectile.
2. An empty space; a void, as on a paper, or in one's memory.
• Jonathan SwiftI cannot write a paper full, I used to do; and yet I will not forgive a blank of half an inch from you.
• HallamFrom this time there ensues a long blank in the history of French legislation.
• George EliotI was ill. I can't tell how long — it was a blank.
3. A space to be filled in on a form or template.
4. A paper without marks or characters, or with space left for writing; a ballot, form, contract, etc. that has not yet been filled in.
• PalfreyThe freemen signified their approbation by an inscribed vote, and their dissent by a blank.
5. A lot by which nothing is gained; a ticket in a lottery on which no prize is indicated.
• DrydenIn Fortune's lottery lies
  A heap of blanks, like this, for one small prize.
6. (archaic) A kind of base silver money, first coined in England by Henry V., and worth about 8 pence; also, a French coin of the seventeenth century, worth about 4 pence.
7. (engineering) A piece of metal prepared to be made into something by a further operation, as a coin, screw, nuts.
8. (dominoes) A piece or division of a piece, without spots; as, the double blank"; the six blank." In blank, with an essential portion to be supplied by another; as, to make out a check in blank.
9. The space character; the character resulting from pressing the space-bar on a keyboard.
10. The point aimed at in a target, marked with a white spot; hence, the object to which anything is directed.
• ShakespeareLet me still remain
  The true blank of thine eye.
11. Aim; shot; range.
• ShakespeareI have stood ... within the blank of his displeasure
  For my free speech.
12. (chemistry) 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.

Synonyms

• (bullet that doesn't harm) blank cartridge, blank bullet

Verb

1. (transitive) To make void; to erase.I blanked out my previous entry.
2. (transitive, slang) To ignore.She blanked me for no reason.
3. (transitive) To prevent from scoring, as in a sporting event.The team was blanked.
4. (intransitive) To become blank.

Usage notes

Almost any sense of this can occur with out. See blank out.

Derived terms