billet
1 Americannoun
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lodging for a soldier, student, etc., as in a private home or nonmilitary public building.
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Military. an official order, written or verbal, directing the person to whom it is addressed to provide such lodging.
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a place assigned, as a bunk, berth, or the like, to a member of a ship's crew.
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Archaic. a written note, short letter, or the like.
verb (used with object)
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Military. to direct (a soldier) by ticket, note, or verbal order, where to lodge.
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to provide lodging for; quarter.
We arranged with the townspeople to billet the students.
verb (used without object)
noun
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a small chunk of wood; a short section of a log, especially one cut for fuel.
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Metalworking. a comparatively narrow, generally square, bar of steel, especially one rolled or forged from an ingot; a narrow bloom.
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an iron or steel slab upon concrete, serving as a footing to a column.
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Architecture. any of a series of closely spaced cylindrical objects, often in several rows, used as ornaments in a hollow molding or cornice.
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a strap that passes through a buckle, as to connect the ends of a girth.
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a pocket or loop for securing the end of a strap that has been buckled.
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Heraldry. a small, rectangular figure with the longer sides generally vertical, said to represent a block of wood.
noun
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accommodation, esp for a soldier, in civilian lodgings
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the official requisition for such lodgings
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a space or berth allocated, esp for slinging a hammock, in a ship
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informal a job
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archaic a brief letter or document
verb
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(tr) to assign a lodging to (a soldier)
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informal (tr) to assign to a post or job
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to lodge or be lodged
noun
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a chunk of wood, esp for fuel
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metallurgy
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a metal bar of square or circular cross section
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an ingot cast into the shape of a prism
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architect a carved ornament in a moulding, with short cylinders or blocks evenly spaced
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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billetsimple
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billetssimple
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have billetedperfect
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has billetedperfect
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am billetingprogressive
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are billetingprogressive
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is billetingprogressive
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have been billetingperfect progressive
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has been billetingperfect progressive
Past
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billetedsimple
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had billetedperfect
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was billetingprogressive
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were billetingprogressive
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had been billetingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of billet1
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English billet, bylet “official register; record,” from Anglo-French, Old French billette, variant of Old French bullette, equivalent to bulle bill 1 + -ette -ette
Origin of billet2
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English billet, bylet, from Old French billette, equivalent to bille “log, tree trunk” (from unrecorded Gaulish bilia “tree trunk”; compare Old Irish bile “landmark tree”) + -ette -ette
Vocabulary lists containing billet
Quartering Act (1765)
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Hundreds of them marched — marched — down from Northern California to this new billet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 6, 2024
The spot premium for low-carbon billet, a fabricated product often used in construction, has slid to zero from $30 a tonne in January, he said.
From Reuters ● Dec. 17, 2022
Some critics dubbed her the border czar — a title she has resoundingly rejected, insisting her billet stops south of the border.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 13, 2021
“When he was here, we would go for drives and he would sing, he would dance, he would laugh,” said his billet mom, Kim Pagé.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 9, 2021
“Plenty to keep the inner creature satisfied. Scorching June weather, and a top-hole billet for snoozin’, what, what?”
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
Mr. Carter’s decision to open combat billets to women upended policy as old as the U.S. military itself: Women could only support, not fight in, America’s wars.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 25, 2022
Several women have completed the grueling training for elite special operations billets.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 9, 2021
A GI billets in a relative’s castle, haunted by a cowardly 300-year-old ghost.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 13, 2019
General and flag officers generally have been removed from their billets only for misconduct, a failure on the battlefield, or screw-ups inside the bureaucracy.
From Time ● Sep. 11, 2016
We were just coming back from the front line, and at a turning of the road near our billets, marvellous in the morning twilight, stood this cherry tree before us.
From "All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel" by Erich Maria Remarque
We were billeted in the same bunk room, and, after a dinner of polenta, sausage, wild mushrooms, a cabbage salad and strudel, they showed me the route they would take to Venice.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 26, 2022
They have skated in 11 cities, four time zones and two countries, flown in every direction on the compass and billeted in almost a dozen hotels across the continent.
From New York Times ● Nov. 15, 2021
It was here that Louis XIV's soldiers were billeted during the persecution of the Protestant Huguenots - ancestors of the modern population - in the 17th Century.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2021
Extra police have been billeted in two cruise ships in Barcelona harbor.
From Reuters ● Oct. 24, 2017
The officers were billeted in private homes, even in Jewish homes.
From "Night" by Elie Wiesel
I went to a desert staging ground to hear a brigadier general talk about unsexy stuff — how to move an army, the basics of feeding, billeting, equipping, transporting.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 29, 2021
Midwife Edith Smith came to Grantham in 1915 to help tackle prostitution after the billeting of 14,000 soldiers in the area during World War One.
From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2014
On Jan. 26, 2008, Corporal Santiago, Corpsman Carpeso and Hollywood were together in a billeting container when the corpsman was shot in the eye.
From New York Times ● Dec. 20, 2013
“Unfortunately, they were engineering personnel and they were building billeting for the A.N.A.”
From New York Times ● Jan. 8, 2013
The historical interest of billeting in England begins with the repeated petitions against it in the reigns of Elizabeth, James I. and Charles I., which culminated in the Petition of Right.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Slice 7 "Bible" to "Bisectrix" by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.