blank

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Contents

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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.

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

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

  1. Without color; lacking characteristics which give variety.
  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”, 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.
  3. Without expression.
    When asked, his answer was a blank stare. When asked again his stare was even more blank.

Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

blank (plural blanks)

  1. A cartridge that is designed to simulate the noise and smoke of real gunfire without actually firing a projectile.
  2. A void space on a paper.
  3. A space to be filled in on a form or template.
  4. (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. Nares.
  5. (engineering) A piece of metal prepared to be made into something by a further operation, as a coin, screw, nuts.
  6. (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.
  7. The space character; the character resulting from pressing the space-bar on a keyboard.

Synonyms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

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.
    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[edit]

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

Translations[edit]


Danish[edit]

Adjective[edit]

blank (neuter blankt, definite and plural blanke, comparative blankere, superlative blankest)

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

Dutch[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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

Adjective[edit]

blank (comparative blanker, superlative blankst)

  1. white, pale
  2. (race) White, Caucasian.

Declension[edit]

Derived terms[edit]


German[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

blank (comparative blanker, superlative am blanksten)

  1. pure, sheer
    Blanke Wut packte ihn. — Sheer anger seized him.

Declension[edit]

Derived terms[edit]


Swedish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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

Adjective[edit]

blank (comparative blankare, superlative blankast)

  1. reflective, shiny

Inflection[edit]