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carte blanche

noun

  1. blank cheque
  2. full discretionary power (given)
L187277 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /(ˈ)kɑɹt ˈblɑn(t)ʃ/ / /(ˈ)kɑːt ˈblɑːnʃ/

adv

Etymology: Borrowed from French carte blanche, referring to a blank or white card.

  1. As an undifferentiated mass, without regard to distinctions; willy-nilly. (Possibly from confusion with another French phrase, en masse.)

    Can gay and lesbian people in justice be excluded carte blanche from the sacrament of sexual love sharing, let alone from church membership or leadership?

    The mass production of tennis equipment made it more affordable, such that blue-collar workers were no longer excluded carte blanche as before the war (Birley 1995b).

noun

Etymology: Borrowed from French carte blanche, referring to a blank or white card.

  1. Unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority.

    “[…] But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic ?[…]Does your carte blanche run so far as that also ?”

    We have given technology carte blanche, much in the way Congress has always, in the past, given automatic approval to defense budgets, resulting in the most gigantic graft in history.

  2. A blank paper that is signed by some authority and given to a person to fill as they please.

    2001, Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, Alfred A. Knopf (2001), 15, Indeed, I later learned that when they had bought the place, in 1930, they had given my father's older sister Lina their checkbook, carte blanche, saying, "Do what you want, get what you want."

  3. A hand with no court cards.
  4. A chargecard issued by Diners Club International.