Search results for 'billet':

billet¹ noun 1 a house, often a private home, where soldiers are given food and lodging temporarily. 2 a formal order to a householder to provide lodgings for a soldier. 3 colloq an allocated sleeping- or resting-place. 4 colloq, chiefly Brit a job or occupation. verb (billeted, billeting) to give or assign lodging to, or to accommodate (soldiers, etc).
ETYMOLOGY: 15c, originally meaning 'a brief letter or note assigning quarters' (as sense 2): from French billette a letter or note.

billet² noun 1 a small log or thick chunk of wood, eg for firewood. 2 a small bar of metal. 3 archit a Romanesque type of ornamental moulding formed of bands of regularly-spaced cylindrical or square blocks.
ETYMOLOGY: 15c: from French billette, from bille a log or small tree-trunk.