Billet

Word of the Day for Friday March 4, 2005

billet \BIL-it\, noun:
1. Lodging for soldiers.
2. An official order directing that a soldier be provided with lodging.
3. A position of employment; a job.

transitive verb:
1. To quarter, or place in lodgings.
2. To serve (a person) with an official order to provide lodging for soldiers.

intransitive verb:
To be quartered; to lodge.

When he was well enough, he was retrieved back to his billet in the American zone.
--Frances Stonor Saunders, The Cultural Cold War

Louisa stayed at the hospital to be near him, while the younger children were billeted at a nearby house with their Irish governess.
--Douglas Botting, Gerald Durrell

We arrived jet-lagged at Tan Son Nhut airport where someone met us and hurried us off to wherever we were billeted, usually a villa on one of the wide residential boulevards that reminded everyone of a French provincial city.
--Ward Just, A Dangerous Friend


2
n.

1. A short, thick piece of wood, especially one used as firewood.
2. One of a series of regularly spaced, log-shaped segments used horizontally as ornamentation in the moldings of Norman architecture.
3.
1. A small, usually rectangular bar of iron or steel in an intermediate stage of manufacture.
2. A small ingot of nonferrous metal.
4.
1. The part of a harness strap that passes through a buckle.
2. A loop or pocket for securing the end of a buckled harness strap.


[Middle English, from Old French billette, diminutive of bille, log, from Vulgar Latin *bilia, possibly of Celtic origin.]


bil·let
n.

1.
1. Lodging for troops.
2. A written order directing that such lodging be provided.
2. A position of employment; a job.
3. Archaic. A short letter; a note.


v. bil·let·ed, bil·let·ing, bil·lets

[Middle English, official register, from Old French billette, from bullette, diminutive of bulle, document, from Medieval Latin bulla, document, seal. See bill1.]


billet

n 1: a short personal letter; "drop me a line when you get there" [syn: note, short letter, line] 2: lodging for military personnel (especially in a private home) 3: a job in an organization; "he occupied a post in the treasury" [syn: position, post, berth, office, spot, place, situation] v : provide housing for (military personnel) [syn: quarter, canton]
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Lodging:
Fraunces Tavern in the Financial District-used to house soldiers during the Revolutionary War and served George Washington dinner




Posting for housing


Archaic-a note (I received it today)


a belt, loop to hold belt:


a job:


a hunk of metal: