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Blank

1. Of a white or pale colour; without colour. To the blank moon Her office they prescribed. (Milton)

2. Free from writing, printing, or marks; having an empty space to be filled in with some special writing; said of checks, official documents, etc.; as, blank paper; a blank check; a blank ballot.

3. Utterly confounded or discomfited. Adam . . . Astonied stood, and blank. (Milton)

4. Empty; void; without result; fruitless; as, a blank space; a blank day.

5. Lacking characteristics which give variety; as, a blank desert; a blank wall; destitute of interests, affections, hopes, etc.; as, to live a blank existence; destitute of sensations; as, blank unconsciousness.

6. Lacking animation and intelligence, or their associated characteristics, as expression of face, look, etc.; expressionless; vacant. Blank and horror-stricken faces. The blank . . . Glance of a half returned consciousness. (g. Eliot)

7. Absolute; downright; unmixed; as, blank terror. Blank bar, a tire without a flange. Blank tooling. See blind tooling, under blind. Blank verse. See verse. Blank wall, a wall in which there is no opening; a dead wall.

Origin: oe. Blank, blonc, blaunc, blaunche, fr. F. Blanc, fem. Blanche, fr. OHG. Blanch shining, bright, white, g. Blank; akin to E. Blink, cf. Also as. Blanc white. 98. See Blink, and cf. 1st blanch.

1. Any void space; a void space on paper, or in any written instrument; an interval void of consciousness, action, result, etc; a void. I can not write a paper full, i used to do; and yet i will not forgive a blank of half an inch from you. (Swift) From this time there ensues a long blank in the history of french legislation. (Hallam) I was ill. I can't tell how long it was a blank. (g. Eliot)

2. A lot by which nothing is gained; a ticket in a lottery on which no prize is indicated. In Fortune's lottery lies a heap of blanks, like this, for one small prize. (Dryden)

3. A paper unwritten; a paper without marks or characters a blank ballot; especially, a paper on which are to be inserted designated items of information, for which spaces are left vacant; a bland form. The freemen signified their approbation by an inscribed vote, and their dissent by a blank. (Palfrey)

4. A paper containing the substance of a legal instrument, as a deed, release, writ, or execution, with spaces left to be filled with names, date, descriptions, etc.

5. The point aimed at in a target, marked with a white spot; hence, the object to which anything is directed. Let me still remain The true blank of thine eye. (Shak)

6. Aim; shot; range. I have stood . . . Within the blank of his displeasure For my free speech. (Shak)

7. 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.

8. (Science: mechanics) a piece of metal prepared to be made into something by a further operation, as a coin, screw, nuts.

9. 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.