blank

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.

• IPA^(key): /blæŋk/
• Rhymes: -æŋk

blank (comparative blanker or more blank, superlative blankest or most blank)

1. (archaic) White or pale; without colour.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     To the blank moon / Her office they prescribed.

2. Free from writing, printing, or marks; having an empty space to be filled in

   blank paper

   a blank check

   a blank ballot

3. (sports) Scoreless; without any goals or points.
   • 2011 December 27, Mike Henson, “Norwich 0 - 2 Tottenham”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Referee Michael Oliver failed to detect a foul in a crowded box and the Canaries escaped down the tunnel with the scoreline still blank.

4. (figuratively) Lacking characteristics which give variety; uniform.

   a blank desert; a blank wall; blank unconsciousness

5. Absolute; downright; sheer.

   There was a look of blank terror on his face.

6. Without expression.

   Failing to understand the question, he gave me a blank stare.

7. Utterly confounded or discomfited.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     Adam […] astonied stood, and blank.

8. Empty; void; without result; fruitless.

   a blank day

9. Devoid of thoughts, memory, or inspiration.

   The shock left his memory blank.

10. (military) Of ammunition: having propellant but no bullets; unbulleted.

    The recruits were issued with blank rounds for a training exercise.

• Belizean Creole: blank

blank (plural blanks)

1. (archaic, historical, obsolete) 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 [15th–17th century].

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Nares to this entry?)

   • 1523, Jean Froissart, transl. by John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners, Cronycles of Englande, Fraunce etc.:

     Whosoeuer brought a fagot before the kynges tent, he shulde haue a blanke of Fraunce.

2. (obsolete) A nonplus [16th century].
3. 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 [since the 16th century].
   • 1603, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice‎:

     Des. […] And stood within the blank of his displeasure / For my free speech! (Act III, scene 11)

   • 1606, William Shakespeare, King Lear‎:

     Kent. See better, Lear, and let me still remain / The true blank of thine eye. (Act I, scene 2)

4. A lot by which nothing is gained; a ticket in a lottery on which no prize is indicated [since the 16th century].
   • 1717, John Dryden, Juvenal's Satires‎:

     […] and in Fortune's lottery lies / A heap of blanks, like this, for one small prize.

5. An empty space; a void, for example on a paper [since the 16th century].
   1. A space to be filled in on a form or template.

      Write your answers in the blanks.

   2. Provisional words printed in italics (instead of blank spaces) in a bill before Parliament, being matters of practical detail, of which the final form will be settled in Committee [since the 19th century].
6. (now chiefly U.S.) 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 [since the 16th century].
   • 1859, John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England‎, volume 1:

     […] and the freemen signified their approbation by an inscribed vote, and their dissent by a blank.

   1. An empty form without substance; anything insignificant; nothing at all [since the 17th century].
   2. An unprinted leaf of a book [20th century].
7. (literature) Blank verse [since the 16th century].
8. (mechanics, engineering) 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; (coining) the disc of metal before stamping [since the 16th century].
   1. Any article of glass on which subsequent processing is required [since the 19th century].
   2. (electric recording) The shaved wax ready for placing on a recording machine for making wax records with a stylus [20th century].
9. (figuratively) A vacant space, place, or period; a void [since the 17th century].
   • 1602, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, or What You Will‎^{Vio.%20A%20blanke%20my%20Lord.&hl=de&pg=PA263#v=onepage&q&f=false}:

     Du. And what's her history? Vio. A blanke my Lord. (Act II, scene 4)

10. The ¹ / ₂₃₀₄₀₀ of a grain [17th century].
11. An empty space in one's memory; a forgotten item or memory [since the 18th century].
    • 1736, Jonathan Swift, Letters‎:

      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.

    • 1818, Henry Hallam, View of the State of Europe During the Middle Ages‎:

      From this time there ensues a long blank in the history of French legislation.

    • 1863, George Eliot, Romola‎:

      “I was ill. I can't tell how long — it was a blank. […] ”

12. A dash written in place of an omitted letter or word [since the 18th century]
13. The space character; the character resulting from pressing the space-bar on a keyboard.
14. (dominoes) A domino without points on one or both of its divisions.

    the double blank

    the six blank

15. Short for blank-cartridge; a cartridge that is designed to simulate the noise and smoke of real gunfire without actually firing a projectile [since the 19th century].
16. (figuratively, in the expression ‘shooting blanks’, sports) An ineffective effort which achieves nothing [since the 20th century].
    1. (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.
    2. (slang) Infertile semen.

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

blank (third-person singular simple present blanks, present participle blanking, simple past and past participle blanked)

1. (transitive) To make void; to erase.

   I blanked out my previous entry.

2. (transitive, slang) To ignore (a person) deliberately.

   She blanked me for no reason.

3. (transitive) To prevent from scoring, for example in a sporting event.

   The team was blanked.

   England blanks Wales to advance to the final.

4. (intransitive) To become blank.
5. (intransitive) To be temporarily unable to remember.

   I'm blanking on her name right now.

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

From Dutch blank.

• IPA^(key): /blaŋk/

blank (attributive blanke, comparative blanker, superlative blankste)

1. white
2. White; Caucasian

• swart

blank m (plural blanke, feminine blanka)

1. Alternative form of blanc

blank

1. bright, shining, glossy
2. empty
3. blank
4. broke (be without money)

• “blank” in Den Danske Ordbog

From Old Dutch *blank, from Proto-Germanic *blankaz.

• IPA^(key): /blɑŋk/

• Audio

  (file)

blank (comparative blanker, superlative blankst)

1. white, pale
2. white (having a light skin tone)

• blank staan

• Afrikaans: blank

From Middle High German blanc, from Old High German blanc (“shining, bright”), from Proto-Germanic *blankaz.

• IPA^(key): /blaŋk/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aŋk

blank (comparative blanker, superlative am blanksten)

1. (archaic) bright
2. spotlessly clean; shining; polished

   Du musst die Platte blank scheuern.

   You must rub the platter until it is shining.

3. bare; naked; uncovered

   mit blankem Hintern ― with one’s behind uncovered

4. pure; sheer

   Blanke Wut packte ihn.

   Sheer anger seized him.

5. (colloquial) broke; out of money
6. (card games) being a player’s last one of a respective grouping of cards (which means that the card is unprotected when the player must follow suit in trick-taking games)

   Hätte ich Trumpf ausgespielt, wäre mein Fuchs blank gewesen.

   If I had played trump, my “fox” [ace of diamonds in Doppelkopf] would have been my last trump card.

• blitzblank

• blank in Duden online

From Middle Low German blank

blank (masculine and feminine blank, neuter blankt, definite singular and plural blanke, comparative blankere, indefinite superlative blankest, definite superlative blankeste)

1. glossy, shining, shiny
2. bright, clear, glittering, sunny
3. blank (e.g. cheque, paper, mind)

• speilblank

• “blank” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “blank_1” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

• IPA^(key): /blɑŋk/

blank (masculine and feminine blank, neuter blankt, definite singular and plural blanke, comparative blankare, indefinite superlative blankast, definite superlative blankaste)

1. shiny, reflective

   Dei pussa sølvtøyet så det vart blankt.

   They shined the silver until it was shiny.

2. exactly, point zero (of time)

   Han sprang 100 meter på ti blank.

   He ran 100 meters in ten point zero seconds.

3. blank, empty

   Ho gav dottera eit blankt ark til å teikna på.

   She gave her daughter a blank piece of paper to draw on.

4. without knowledge about something

   Eg er heilt blank om dette temaet.

   I know nothing about this subject.

• “blank” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

blank

1. shiny, lustrous, glittering

From Middle Low German blank, from Old Saxon blank, from Proto-Germanic *blankaz. Displaced native Swedish black, from Old Norse blakkr.

blank (comparative blankare, superlative blankast)

1. reflective, shiny
2. smooth