91 
B L A 
Tongue-batteries, the furceas’d not day nor night 
To florin me over-watch’d, and weary’d out. Millet). 
BLAN'DISHMENT,/! [from bland if ; blandilice, Lat.] 
Adt of foridnefs ; exprellion of tendernels by gefiure : 
The little babe lip in her arms he bent, 
Who, with fvveet pleafure and bold blandjhment, 
’Gan fmile, Spenfcr. 
Soft words ; kind fpeeches ; kind treatment; carefs : 
Him Dido now with blandijhment detains ; 
But I fufpeft the town where Juno reigns. Dryden, 
BL AN DONO'N A, anciently a city of Liguria, in Italy : 
Now Broni. 
BLANKS, a feaport town of Spain, in Catalonia, on 
the Mediterranean : thirty-four miles north-eaft of Barce¬ 
lona. Lat. 41. 42. N. Ion. 19. 25. E. Peak of Teneriff. 
BLAN'GRIS, a town of France, in the department of 
the Lower Seine, and chief place of a canton, in the dif- 
trift of Neufchatel: twenty miles eaft of Dieppe, and 
fourteen north-north-eaft of Neufchatel. 
BLAN'GY, a town of France, in the department of 
the flraits of Calais, and chief place of a canton, in the 
dillrict of Montreuil : two leagues north-eaft of Ilefdin. 
BLAN'GY, a town of France, in the department of 
the Calvados, and chief place of a canton, in the di ft rift 
of Pont l’Eveque : eight leagues eaft of Caen, and one 
and a half fouth-eaft of Pont l’Eveque. 
BLANK, adj. [ blanc, Fr. derived by Menage from Al- 
bianus, thus : Albianus, albianicus, bianicus, biancus, bianco, 
blanicns, blancus, blanc ; by others, from blanc , which, .in 
Danifh, lignifies Jhining ; in conformity to which, the 
Germans have blancker, to Jhine ; the Saxons, blaecan ; and 
the Englifh, bleach , to whiten.] White : 
To the blank moon 
Her office they prefcrib’d ; .to th’ other five 
Their planetary motions. Milton. 
Without writing ; unwritten ; empty of all marks.— 
Upon the debtor fide, I find innumerable articles ; but, 
upon the creditor fide, little more than blank paper. Addi- 
fon. —Pale ; confufed ; crulhed ; difpirited j lubdued ; de- 
prefled. 
Adam, foon as he heard 
The fatal trefpafs done by Eve, amaz’d, 
Aftonied flood, and blank , while horrour chill 
Ran through his veins, and all his joints relax’d. Milton. 
BLANK, f. A void fpace on paper.—I cannot write a 
paper full, as I ufed to do; and yet I will not forgive a 
blank of half an inch from you. Swift. —A lot, by which 
nothing is gained ; which has no prize marked upon it : 
In fortune’s lottery lies 
A heap of blanks, like this, for one fmall prize. Dryden. 
A paper from which the writing is effaced ; a paper un¬ 
written ; any thing without marks or charafters.—Life 
may be one great blank, which, though not blotted with 
fin, is yet without any charafters of grace or virtue. Rogers. 
For the book of knowledge fair, 
Prefented with an univerf.il blank 
Of nature’s works, to me expung’d and ras’d. Milton. 
The point to which an arrow is direfted ; fo called, be- 
caufe, to be more vifible, it was marked with white. Now 
difufcd : 
Slander, 
Whofe whifper o’er the world’s diameter, 
As level as the cannon to his blank, 
Tranfports its poifon’d fliot. Shakcfpcare. 
Aim ; fhot. Not itfed. 
i have fpoken for you all my bed. 
And flood within the blank of his difpleafure, 
For my free fpeech. Shakefpeare. 
B L A 
Objeft to which any thing is direfted t 
See better, Lear, arid let me flill remain 
The true blank of thine eye. Shakefpeare. 
To BLANK, v. a. [from blank-, b/anchir, Fr.] To 
damp; toconfufe; to difpirit.—If the atheifl, when he 
dies, fliould rind that his foul remains, how will this man 
be amazed and blanked. Til/otfon. —To efface; to annul, 
—All former purpofes were blanked, tl;>e governour at a 
bay, and all that charge loft and cancelled. Spenfcr. 
BLANK-BAR, J. The name of a plea in bar, which, 
in aftion of trefpafs, is put in to oblige the plaintiff to 
aftign the certain place wdiere the trefpafs was committed. 
2 Cro. 594. 
BLANK'ENBERG, a feaport town and fortrefs of 
Flanders, fituated on the fea coafl: ten miles north-eaft 
of Oftend. 
BLAN K'ENBERG, a town of Germany, in the cir¬ 
cle of Weftphalia, and duchy of Berg : twenty miles fouth- 
eaft of Cologne. 
BLANK'ENBURG, ' a principality in the circle of 
Lower Saxony, belonging to the reigning houfe of Brunf- 
wick Wolfenbuttc- 1 . It is about twenty miles long and 
eight wide ; lying partly on the Harz mountain, and partly 
near it. In the northern part it is fertile in corn ; the 
reft, which lies on the Harz, abounds in woods, with quar¬ 
ries of marble and iron mines. 
BLANK'ENBERG, a town of Germany, in the circle 
of Lower Saxony, and capital of a principality to which 
it gives name, in which are held courts of judicature. 
The duke of Brunfwick Wolienbuttel has a palace here : 
feven miles fouth of Halberftadt, and feven eaft-fouth-eaft 
of Wernigrode. 
BLANK'ENHAYN, a town of Germany, in the circle 
of Upper Saxony, a fief of the eleftorate of Mentz : fe- 
venteen miles eaft-fouth-eaft of Erfurt. 
BLANK'ENHEIM, a town of Germany, and capital 
of a county of the fame name, in the circle of Weftphalia, 
and bifhopric of Treves : thirty-fix miles north-north-eaft 
of Treves. 
BLANKENSE'E, a lake of Germany, in the circle of 
Upper Saxony, and Middle Mark of Brandenburg : fix 
miles eaft of Belitz. 
BLANK'ENSTEIN, a town of Germany, in the circle 
of Weftphalia, and county of Mark, fituated on an emi¬ 
nence near the Rhor: nineteen miles eafl-north-eaft of 
Duffeldorp. 
BLANK'ERSDORF, a town of Bohemia, in the circle 
of Leitmeritz : nine miles weft of Leypa. 
BLAN'KET, f. \_blanchette, Fr.] A woollen cover, 
foft, and loofely woven, fpread commonly upon a bed, 
over the fhcet, for the procurement of warmth. The 
manufafture of blankets has been long famous at Witney 
in Oxfordfhire, where it is advanced to that perfeftion 
that no other place comes near it. Some attribute a great 
part of the excellency of the Witney blankets to the ab- 
fterfi.ve nitrous water of the river Windru Ill, wherewith they 
are fcoured p others rather think they owe it to a peculiar 
way of loofe (ginning. The place has certainly eng rolled a 
great part of the trade of the nation for lifts commodity ; 
infomuch that the wool fit for it centres here from the 
• furthermoft parts of the kingdom. Blankets are made of 
felt-wool, i. e. wool from off ftieep-fkins, which they 
divide into feveral forts. Of the head wool and bay wool 
they make blankets of twelve, eleven, and ten, quarters 
broad; of the ordinary and middle fort, blankets of 
eight and feven quarters'broad ; of the beft tail wool 
blankets of fix quarters broad, commonly called_«Us, ferv- 
ing for feamen’s hammocks. 
ToJJing in a BLAN'KKT,/! A ludicrous pnniftnncnf, 
of which we find mention in the ancients under the deno¬ 
minationMartial defcrib.es it graphically enough. 
Ibis ad excvjjo, miffus ad ajlra, Jago. A late writer repre- 
lents it as one of Otho’s imperial delights. But that em¬ 
peror’s diverfion, as related by Suetonius, was not to be 
