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Billet   /bˈɪlət/  /bˈɪlɪt/   Listen
noun
Billard  n.  (Written also billet and billit)  (Zool.) An English fish, allied to the cod; the coalfish.



Billet  n.  
1.
A small paper; a note; a short letter. "I got your melancholy billet."
2.
A ticket from a public officer directing soldiers at what house to lodge; as, a billet of residence.
3.
Quarters or place to which one is assigned, as by a billet or ticket; berth; position. Also used fig. (Colloq.) "The men who cling to easy billets ashore." "His shafts of satire fly straight to their billet, and there they rankle."



Billet  n.  
1.
A small stick of wood, as for firewood. "They shall beat out my brains with billets."
2.
(Metal.) A short bar of metal, as of gold or iron.
3.
(Arch.) An ornament in Norman work, resembling a billet of wood either square or round.
4.
(Saddlery)
(a)
A strap which enters a buckle.
(b)
A loop which receives the end of a buckled strap.
5.
(Her.) A bearing in the form of an oblong rectangle.



verb
Billet  v. t.  (past & past part. billeted; pres. part. billeting)  (Mil.) To direct, by a ticket or note, where to lodge. Hence: To quarter, or place in lodgings, as soldiers in private houses. "Billeted in so antiquated a mansion."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Billet" Quotes from Famous Books



... trampling of one of the horses made him presently look up. His eye in the moment caught the gleam of something white attached to a part of the harness. Examined by the light of the lantern this proved to be a folded paper—a billet. It bore no address without; within was ...
— Shirley • Charlotte Bronte

... Sands to work that December afternoon, he would have paid his way to London, had a trans-Atlantic trip been made the price of being rid of him. But a Senator is not a soothsayer, and no impression of the kind once touched him. He got Mr. Sands his billet, and said it gave him pleasure to comply with the request of his young friend, Mr. Storms. To Richard, the hereafter was as opaque as it was to Senator Hanway, and, having seen his protege installed, he walked ...
— The President - A novel • Alfred Henry Lewis

... Sims thought he had secured for me a suitable billet. Could I drive four horses in a cart, he asked? Well, I had certainly driven a pair of mules in a Scotch cart with fair success and I could, in a way, handle a team of oxen. But when Sims explained ...
— Reminiscences of a South African Pioneer • W. C. Scully

... chief executioner, and asked what she was to do; he told her to bestride the plank and lie prone upon it; which she did with great trouble and timidity; but as she was unable, on account of the fullness of her bust, to lay her neck upon the block, this had to be raised by placing a billet of wood underneath it; all this time the poor woman, suffering even more from shame than from fear, was kept in suspense; at length, when she was properly adjusted, the executioner touched the spring, the knife fell, and the decapitated head, falling on the platform of the scaffold, ...
— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... after to-morrow," I heard spoken in English. Great Heavens! was it possible? had I arrived at a clue? That was the day of days for me. "You have given it, you say, in this billet,—I wish to be exact, you see," continued the voice,—"to prevent detection, you gave it, ten minutes after it came into your hands, to the butler of Madame——," (here the speaker stumbled on the rough pavement, and I lost the name,) "who," he continued, "will put it in the——" (a second ...
— Atlantic Monthly Vol. 3, No. 16, February, 1859 • Various


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