billet

¹ American  

[bil-it] / ˈbɪl ɪt /

noun

1. lodging for a soldier, student, etc., as in a private home or nonmilitary public building.

2. Military. an official order, written or verbal, directing the person to whom it is addressed to provide such lodging.

3. a place assigned, as a bunk, berth, or the like, to a member of a ship's crew.

4. job; position; appointment.

5. Archaic. a written note, short letter, or the like.

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verb (used with object)

billets, present (3rd person singular) billeted, past participle, past billeting present participle

1. Military. to direct (a soldier) by ticket, note, or verbal order, where to lodge.

2. to provide lodging for; quarter.

   We arranged with the townspeople to billet the students.

verb (used without object)

billets, present (3rd person singular) billeted, past participle, past billeting present participle

1. to obtain lodging; stay.

   They billeted in youth hostels.

billet ² American  

[bil-it] / ˈbɪl ɪt /

noun

1. a small chunk of wood; a short section of a log, especially one cut for fuel.

2. Metalworking. a comparatively narrow, generally square, bar of steel, especially one rolled or forged from an ingot; a narrow bloom.

3. an iron or steel slab upon concrete, serving as a footing to a column.

4. Architecture. any of a series of closely spaced cylindrical objects, often in several rows, used as ornaments in a hollow molding or cornice.

5. a strap that passes through a buckle, as to connect the ends of a girth.

6. a pocket or loop for securing the end of a strap that has been buckled.

7. thumbpiece.

8. Heraldry. a small, rectangular figure with the longer sides generally vertical, said to represent a block of wood.

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billet ¹ British  

/ ˈbɪlɪt /

noun

1. accommodation, esp for a soldier, in civilian lodgings

2. the official requisition for such lodgings

3. a space or berth allocated, esp for slinging a hammock, in a ship

4. informal a job

5. archaic a brief letter or document

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verb

1. (tr) to assign a lodging to (a soldier)

2. informal (tr) to assign to a post or job

3. to lodge or be lodged

billet ² British  

/ ˈbɪlɪt /

noun

1. a chunk of wood, esp for fuel

2. metallurgy

   1. a metal bar of square or circular cross section

   2. an ingot cast into the shape of a prism

3. architect a carved ornament in a moulding, with short cylinders or blocks evenly spaced

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• billetee
  noun
• billeter
  noun
• unbilleted
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• billeting
  present
• billeted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• billet
  simple
• billets
  simple
• have billeted
  perfect
• has billeted
  perfect
• am billeting
  progressive
• are billeting
  progressive
• is billeting
  progressive
• have been billeting
  perfect progressive
• has been billeting
  perfect progressive

Past

• billeted
  simple
• had billeted
  perfect
• was billeting
  progressive
• were billeting
  progressive
• had been billeting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will billet
  simple
• will have billeted
  perfect
• will be billeting
  progressive
• will have been billeting
  perfect progressive

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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

billet billets billeted billeting

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

In the pre-show room of the ride, look for a solid microcrystalline silicon billet, ancient silicon wafer chips, vintage cartridge casings for hard drive disks and microscopes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2021

“We don’t know. The regiment arrived yesterday and commandeered every billet, every scrap of food, and every ship in the town. They’d have had this boat, too, if you hadn’t taken it.”

From "The Subtle Knife" by Philip Pullman

Still, there have been well-documented success stories, with several women completing the notoriously grueling training for elite special operations billets.

From Washington Times ● Jul. 26, 2021

The caster is so large that it sits in its own eight-story warehouse, forming the molten steel into long rectangular blocks called billets and then cooling them.

From New York Times ● Jul. 24, 2018

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus rejected the Marine Corps request to exclude women from infantry billets.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 10, 2017

Mattis preferred to be close to the fighting, saying he disdains "chateau generals," a World War I phrase for commanders who stayed in comfortable billets while their troops fought in the trenches.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 21, 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

Grey Zone, a Telegram channel linked to the Wagner mercenary outfit, said that around 500 men were billeted in the complex.

From Reuters ● Jan. 3, 2023

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

Sheena and George have speculated that Eric was billeted with the Hunter family, and was perhaps involved in paying the munition workers in the town.

From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2020

“Because all the quarters billeted for majors and above are filled up,” Bull explained.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy

“No one will be assigned billeting in any unit until all safety and habitability standards are met,” he said.

From New York Times ● Sep. 16, 2022

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

In the first instance, two executive members of the Board proceed to a congested munitions area and, with local aid, institute an inquiry as to whether billeting can be successfully carried out.

From The Woman's Part A Record of Munitions Work by Yates, L. K.