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blank🔊

(archaic) White or pale; without colour.

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

(figurative) Lacking characteristics which give variety; uniform.

Abject; absolute; complete; downright; sheer; utter.

(figurative) Without expression, usually because of incomprehension.

Utterly confounded or discomfited.

Empty; void; without result; fruitless; futile.

Devoid of thoughts, memory, or inspiration.

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

(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 .

(obsolete) A nonplus {{def-date|16th century}}.

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 .

A lot by which nothing is gained; a ticket in a lottery on which no prize is indicated {{def-date|since the 16th century}}.

An empty space; a void, for example on a paper .

A space to be filled in on a form or template.

Provisional words printed in italics (instead of blank spaces) in a bill before Parliament, being matters of practical detail, of which the final form is to be settled in committee .

(U.S.) A document, paper, or form with spaces left blank to be filled in 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 .

An empty form without substance; anything insignificant; nothing at all .

An unprinted leaf of a book {{def-date|20th century}}.

(literature) Blank verse .

(engineering) A piece of material roughly cut, forged, cast, etc. to the size and shape of the thing to be made, and ready for the finishing operations; (coining) the disc of metal before stamping .

Any article of glass on which subsequent processing is required {{def-date|since the 19th century}}.

(electric recording) The shaved wax ready for placing on a recording machine for making wax records with a stylus {{def-date|20th century}}.

(figurative) A vacant space, place, or period; a void {{def-date|since the 17th century}}.

The 1 / 230400 of a grain {{def-date|17th century}}.

An empty space in one's memory; a forgotten item or memory {{def-date|since the 18th century}}.

A dash written in place of an omitted letter or word {{def-date|since the 18th century}}

The space character; the character resulting from pressing the space bar on a keyboard.

(dominoes) A domino without points on one or both of its divisions.

(firearms) (blank cartridge) {{def-date|since the 19th century}}.

(sport) An ineffective effort which achieves nothing {{def-date|since the 20th century}}.

(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.

(slang) Infertile semen.

To make void; to erase.

(slang) To ignore (a person) deliberately.

(of a control surface) 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.

(informal) To experience a temporary lapse of memory; to be temporarily unable to remember a particular fact. Note: Usually used in the first person, present progressive tense; and commonly followed by (on) to create a transitive phrasal verb.

📑 Synonyms: draw a blank freeze freeze up