Also 7 billit, billett. Pa. t. and pple. billeted. [f. BILLET sb.1]
† 1. trans. To enter in a list; to enroll. Obs.
1607. Shaks., Cor., IV. iii. 48. The Centurions, and their charges distinctly billetted … and to be on foot at an houres warning.
1618. Select. Harl. Misc. (1793), 218. He billetted the said pioneers for several ships.
1629. R. Hill, Pathw. Piety, I. Pref. 11. Blessed and billeted up be they in Heaven.
2. To assign quarters to (soldiers) by a note or ticket; to quarter (troops) in, at, on, upon, with.
1599. Nashe, Lent. Stuffe (1871), 10. For ten weeks together this rabble-rout … are billetted with her.
1604. Shaks., Oth., II. iii. 386. Go where thou art Billited.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. I. 33. They refused to suffer the Soldiers to be billetted upon them.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. i. 85. Companies of soldiers were billeted on the people.
b. gen. To assign or appoint quarters to; to locate. (With 1837 cf. BILLET sb.1 4.)
1606. Sylvester, Du Bartas, Columnes, IV. II. ii. 643. In what bright starry Signe, th’ Almighty dread, Dayes Princely Planet’s dayly billeted.
1650. R. Gell, Serm., 15. We finde the twelve Tribes … billeted according to the four Quarters of heaven.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xix. Shots … cast loose upon the world and billeted nowhere.
† c. To give quarters to, lodge. Obs.
1637. Quarles, Elegy, Wks. 1881, III. 15. Sorrow is the Guest Which I must entertaine, and billet in my brest.
† 3. intr. (for refl.) To have quarters. Obs. rare.
1628. in Parr’s Lett., 400 (L.). He billets in my lodgings.
4. trans. To serve (a person) with a billet.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, xxiv. ‘Conscripts!’ said the woman of the house … ‘I am billeted full already.’
† 5. To select by billet (see BILLET sb.1 5); to ballot. Obs.
c. 1690. Sir G. Mackenzie, Mem. Aff. Scotland, 75. Lauderdale … askt the King, ‘What if they billet me, Sir?’ … Then Lauderdale told him that he was billeted.
