Forms: 5 bylet, 5–6 billette, 6 billot, billotte, 7 bullet, 6– billet. [ME. and AF. billette, AngloL. billetta, dim. of billa, bille, BILL sb.3 (But billete occurs also in continental OF., apparently as a variant of bullete, in med.L. bulletta, dim. of L. bulla; and this may have contributed to the Eng. form.)]
† 1. gen. A short written document; a small paper, notice or note; a label. Obs.
[1317. in Dugdale’s Monast. Angl., I. 654. Secundum quod continetur in quadam billetta inter sigillum & scriptum ante consignationem affixa.]
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 36. Bylet, scrowe [v.r. Bille], matricula.
1495. Act 11 Hen. VII., x. § 2. Acquietaunce, writynges, billes, or billettis, wherby it may appere … [that] the seid Commyssioners … have receyved the somme.
1555. Fardle Facions, II. iv. 142. Thei caried vppon their foreheades … pretie billettes of Paper … these were called their Philacteries.
† b. A bill of fare. Obs. rare.
1577. Harrison, England, II. xv. (1877), 272. Which bill [of dishes] some doo call a memoriall, other a billet.
2. spec. A short informal letter, a ‘note.’ arch.
1579. Fenton, Guicciard., V. (1599), 218. Writing to him billets and letters full of office and humanitie.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., III. x. 58. The King … receiv’d little Billets, or Letters … without any Name, which advertised him of wicked designs upon his life.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 306, ¶ 2. The Lady … writ this Billet to her Lover.
1807. T. Jefferson, Corr. (1830), 78. Once in a winter, he usually wrote him a billet of invitation to dine.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 49. Carrying billets backward and forward between his patron and the ugliest maids of honour.
1877. Merivale, Rom. Triumv., viii. 166. They thrust billets into his hand, inscribed ‘Brutus, thou sleepest.’
† 3. A written permission to enter a theater, public place, etc.; an order, a pass. Obs. or arch.
1697. C’tess. D’Aunoy’s Trav. (1706), 33. Although I had a Pasport … I was oblig’d to take a Billet from the Toll-House.
1816. J. Scott, Vis. Paris, 335. The conductor examined the billets of admission [to the catacombs].
1823. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. xvi. (1865), 124. A pretty liberal issue of those cheap billets in Brinsley’s easy autograph.
4. Mil. An official order requiring the person to whom it is addressed to provide board and lodging for the soldier bearing it. (The ordinary modern sense.) Hence billet-master, the official whose duty it is to make out billets; billet-money, the cost of quartering soldiers; also fig. Every bullet has its billet (i.e., its destination assigned): only those are killed whose death Providence has ordained.
1644. in Rushw., Hist. Coll., III. II. 649. That no Billet shall be granted upon any of the Inhabitants without their consent.
1723. Lond. Gaz., No. 6152/3. His Officers and Soldiers; who were by those Billets dispersed into Quarters in several Parts of the Town.
1811. Wellington, Lett., in Gurw., Disp., VII. 140. A Billet is a legal order from a competent authority to the person to whom it is addressed to provide lodging for the bearer of it.
1640–4. King’s Sp., in Rushw., Hist. Coll., III. (1692), I. 614. That which is owing to this County for Billet-Money.
1765. Wesley, Jrnl., 6 June. He never received one wound. So true is the odd saying of King William, that ‘every bullet has its billet.’
† 5. A voting-paper used in voting by ballot. Act of Billets (Scotch Parl. 1662): a measure by which the twelve persons excepted from the King’s Indemnity were to be chosen by secret voting.
1627. Lisander & Cal., IX. 195. Three billets were made with their three names which were all put into a cask.
1676. W. Row, Contn. Blair’s Autobiog., 450. That … unjust, unreasonable, and illegal Act of Billets.
c. 1690. Lauderdale, Speech, in Mackenzie, Mem., 85. Some Republicks use the Billet, or the Ballot, in giving places.
1781. J. Moore, View Soc. It. (1790), I. xi. 121. Each elector … throws a little billet into an urn … On this billet is inscribed the person’s name.
ǁ 6. A bank-note. [French; used by Carlyle for local coloring.]
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. V. iii. 207. Billets of a new National Bank.
¶ See other senses which may belong here, at the end of BILLET sb.2
