Forms: 5–7 blanke, 6–7 blanck(e, 7–8 blanc, 5– blank. [F. blanc white, a common Romanic adj. (Pr. blanc, blanca, Sp. blanco, Pg. branco, It. bianco, med.L. blancus), a. OHG. blanch (MHG. blanc):—OTeut. *blanko-z shining, referred by etymologists generally to the verbal stem BLINK, as a nasalized form of blik- in blîkan, OHG. blîchan, OE. blícan to shine. But *blink, *blinch is not actually found in any of the old dialects; and the origin of *blanko-z thus remains obscure.]
1. White (obs., and chiefly in specific uses, e.g., blank plumb white lead, blank falcon a ‘white hawk,’ i.e., one in its third year); pale, colorless.
c. 1325. Coer de L., 6526. A robe i-furryd with blaun [? blaunc] and nere.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 38. Blanke plumbe [K. H. blavmblumbe, 1499 blawnblumb, otherwyse called whyte lede.]
a. 1500. in Rel. Ant., I. 108. Tempur blank chalke, plum or ceruse, with gleyre.
1562. Leigh, Armorie (1597), 133 b. The Herehaught … in a chemise blanke, powdred and spotted with mullets Sable.
1575. Turberv., Bk. Falconry, 212. The blancke falcons are flegmaticke.
1615. Latham, Falconry (1633), 25. In your blanke Hawks.
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 656. To the blanc Moone Her office they prescrib’d.
1726. Thomson, Winter, 124. Rising slow, Blank, in the leaden-colour’d east, the moon.
1821. Byron, Juan, IV. ix. The blank grey was not made to blast their hair.
2. Of paper, etc.: Left white or ‘fair’; not written upon, free from written or printed characters, ‘empty of all marks’ (J.); said also of orders, cheques, deeds, and official documents left with an empty space for special signature or instruction; not ‘filled up.’ See 10.
1547. Lyndesay, Trag. Cdl. Betoun, 121. Ane paper blank his Grace I gart subscrive.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., II. i. 77. I warrant he hath a thousand of these Letters, writ with blancke-space for different names.
1687. Lond. Gaz., No. 2209/4. A Copy-Book of Letters … about one half of it being Blank paper. Ibid. (1708), No. 4499/3. His Grace sent him a blank Passport.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 549, ¶ 1. When I look upon the Creditor-side, I find little more than blank Paper.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 178. Requesting the King to send a blank safe conduct in the largest terms.
b. Const. of.
1842. Tennyson, St. Simeon, 156. That God hath now Sponged and made blank of crimeful record.
c. In blank: without names specified.
1836. Kent, Comm. Amer. Law, xliv. (1873), III. 89. A note endorsed in blank is like one payable to bearer.
1845. Stephen, Laws Eng., II. 129. Policies being made in blank, that is, without specifying the names of the persons, for whose benefit they were made.
1861. Goschen, For. Exch., 37. Bills which are technically said to be drawn in blank.
3. gen. Empty, without contents, void, bare.
1748. Thomson, Cast. Indol., I. xxix. Wide o’er this ample court’s blank area.
1840. Hood, Up the Rhine (1869), 245. The Figure … strode forth into the blank darkness.
1849. Ruskin, Sev. Lamps, 201. The blank lancet arch on the one hand, and the overcharged cinquefoiled arch on the other.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., II. ii. § 6. The blank sensation of the naked body is owing principally to the deprivation of touch.
1856. Dove, Logic Chr. Faith, V. i. § 1. 261. Issuing out of a universe in which there was only blank space.
b. Blank practice: practice with ‘blank’ or empty cartridges (see 10). Also fig.
1873. Morley, Rousseau, I. 66. Rousseau … changed the blank practice of the elder philosophers into a deadly affair of ball and shell.
4. fig. Void of interest or event; vacant, ‘having nothing in it;’ as a blank look-out.
1729. Butler, Serm., Wks. 1874, II. 189. Various kinds of amusements … serve to fill up the blank spaces of time.
1803. Bristed, Pedest. Tour, II. 481. They … suffered us to talk Irish to ourselves all the evening, without the least interruption, so that we had but a blank night of it.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), I. App. 753. A year which the Chronicles leave quite blank.
b. Void of result, unsuccessful, fruitless, nugatory; amounting to or producing nothing.
a. 1553. Udall, Royster D., II. ii. (Arb.), 34. I weene I am a prophete, this geare will proue blanke.
1627. E. F., Hist. Edw. II. (1680), 47. The King doubles his pace homewards; instead of Triumph, glad he had got loose from so imminent a danger … This blank return filled the Kingdom with a fretting murmur.
1643. Lanc. Tracts, 165. The two Colonells being blank in their treaty, spent their stay in wise instructions.
1699. Boyer, Fr. Dict. (1753), A blank (or bad) come-off, Une méchante defaite.
1832. Eg.-Warburton, Hunt. Songs, ii. (1883), 7. The man … Whose heart heaves a sigh when his gorse is drawn blank. Ibid., 163. But I felt inclin’d in my inmost mind, To wish for a blank day.
c. Of the face or look: Void of expression, expressing no attention, interest or emotion; vacant.
1859. Tennyson, Elaine, 816. While he roll’d his eyes Yet blank from sleep.
1884. Mrs. Ewing, Story Short Life, i. Lady Jane’s face was blank because she was trying not to laugh.
1884. W. C. Smith, Kildrostan, I. iii. 85. To look with blank fixed gaze at these old books.
5. Of persons: (Looking) as if deprived of the faculty of speech or action; ‘shut up,’ utterly disconcerted, discomfited, resourceless, or non-plussed; now chiefly in To look blank: cf. prec.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 61 a. Beeyng confounded and made blanke in a disputacion of a certain feloe.
1580. Baret, Alv., B 781. These fellowes be blanke or out of hart and courage.
1649. Milton, Eikon., 184. The Damsell of Burgundy at sight of her own letter, was soon blank.
1652. Bp. Hall, Invis. World, III. § 3. How blank must Moses needs have looked to see his great works patterned by those presumptuous rivals!
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 890. Adam … amaz’d, Astonied stood and Blank.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 7, ¶ 1. Upon this I looked very blank.
1727. Thomson, Summer, 1050. The blank assistants seem’d, Silent, to ask, whom Fate would next demand.
1853. Kingsley, Hypatia, xi. 134. The two old men looked at each other with blank and horror-stricken faces.
6. Of emotions: Prostrating the whole faculties; unrelieved, helpless, stark, sheer.
1634. Milton, Comus, 452. Noble grace that dashed brute violence With sudden adoration and blank awe.
1717. Pope, Eloisa, 148. ’Tis all blank sadness, or continual tears.
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb., VII. xi. (1849), 437. Blank terror reigned over the community.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., v. Gazing on each other with countenances of blank dismay.
1875. Hamerton, Intell. Life, I. vii. 39. I well remember the blank despair which I felt.
7. gen. Pure, unmixed, utter, downright, sheer, absolute (with a negative or privative force).
1839. De Quincey, Murder, Wks. 1862, IV. 59. The blank impossibilities of Lilliput.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xviii. 222. The red sandstones contrast most favorably with the blank whiteness.
1871. Farrar, Witn. Hist., ii. 54. The blank atheism … of recent controversialists.
† b. Mere, bare, simple. Obs.
1596. Nashe, Saffron-Walden, Wks. (1883–4), 103. None is priuy to a blank maintenance he hath, and some maintenance of necessity he must haue.
1640. Brome, Antipodes, V. iv. Wks. III. 327. Did you not warrant me upon that pawne … your blanck honour, That you would cure his jealousie?
8. Blank verse: verse without rhyme; esp. the iambic pentameter or unrhymed heroic, the regular measure of English dramatic and epic poetry, first used by the Earl of Surrey (died 1547).
1589. Nashe, in Greene, Menaph., Pref. (Arb.), 6. The swelling, bumbast of bragging blanke verse.
1602. Shaks., Ham., II. ii. 339. The Lady shall say her minde freely; or the blanke Verse shall halt for’t.
1739. Chesterf., Lett., I. xxv. 93. Those that have no rhymes are called blank verses.
1784. Cowper, Lett., 13 Dec. Blank verse is susceptible of a much greater diversification of manner than verse in rhyme.
1874. Sayce, Compar. Philol., ix. 385. Our greatest poems have been written in blank verse.
b. Hence blank versifier.
1746. W. Horsley, The Fool (1748), II. 96. Rebus-Men, Punsters, and Blank Versifiers.
9. Comb., as blank-eyed, blank-looking adjs.
1881. H. James, Portr. Lady, xxxvi. It was her habit to interpose a good many blank-looking pauses.
1882. J. Parker, Apost. Life (1884), III. 63. The blank-eyed villagers.
10. In various specific collocations: as (in sense 2) blank acceptance, blank cheque, check one not having the amount filled in; blank bar, ‘a Plea in Bar, which in an Action of Trespass is put in to compel the Plaintiff to assign the certain place where the Trespass was committed’ (Blount, Law Dict., 1670); blank bond, a bond in which a blank is left for the creditor’s name; blank charter, a document given to the agents of the crown in Richard II.’s reign, with power to fill it up as they pleased; hence fig. liberty to do as one likes; blank credit, ‘an authorized permission given to draw on an individual or firm to a certain amount’ (Ogilvie); blank indorsement, a bill in which the indorsee’s name is omitted. Also (in sense 3) blank-cartridge, a cartridge containing no ball; blank-door (Arch.), an imitation of a door; blank-tire, a tire without a flange; blank-tooling = blind-blocking; see BLIND 14; blank-window, an imitation-window. Also Blank-form: see BLANCH; point blank: see POINT.
1826. Gentl. Mag., May, 458/2. Their carbines … were only loaded with *blank cartridges.
1398. Hist. Croyland. Cont., in Rer. Angl. Script. Vet. (1684), I. 493. Quadam alba charta vocata *Blankechartre … quod utique Regis Richardi in posterum causa exitii magna fuit.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., I. iv. 48. Our Substitutes at home shall haue *Blanke-charters.
1593. Donne, Sat., iii. That God hath with his hand Sign’d kings blank-charters, to kill whom they hate.
† B. quasi-adv. Absolutely, unreservedly. Obs.
1677. Temple, Lett., Wks. 1731, II. 434. The Allegations on either side are blank contrary one to the other.
