What does blanked mean?
"Blanked" is the past tense and past participle of the verb "blank," carrying several related meanings that all revolve around emptiness. Its most literal sense is to erase or obscure content: a censor blanks out a name, or a student blanks out an answer. Figuratively, it describes a sudden mental failure — when someone's mind simply goes empty under pressure, they may say they "blanked" on an answer or a name they knew perfectly well. In informal British English, it has another vivid use entirely: to blank someone is to ignore them pointedly, refusing to acknowledge their presence as though they were an empty space rather than a person. This range makes the word useful for describing both physical redaction and social slight. Though casual in register, it is widely understood across the English-speaking world, with the deliberate-ignoring sense being the most regionally marked.
verbThe past tense and past participle of "blank": to erase, cover, or leave empty spaces in something; or (informal) to ignore someone deliberately, as if they were not there.
- To erase, delete, or cover over content, leaving it empty (often as "blanked out")
- (Informal) To go suddenly unable to remember or think of something ("my mind went blank" construction; "he blanked on her name")
- (British informal) To deliberately ignore someone, treating them as if invisible
"She blanked the names from the document before sharing it."
"He blanked his mind of all distractions before stepping onto the stage."
"I waved at her across the street, but she just blanked me and kept walking."
In British slang, if someone blanked you at a party, you might as well have been invisible — the word literally turns you into a blank space.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of blanked
"Blanked" derives from the adjective "blank," which entered English in the late Middle Ages from French "blanc," meaning white or pale, ultimately from a Germanic source that also gave Old French the word. From the color sense came the meaning of an empty, unmarked surface, and by extension the verb senses of erasing, covering, or ignoring. The word is thus a cousin of "blanket," originally a white cloth, and "blanch," meaning to whiten.
Related word forms
How blanked is actually used
Predominantly informal in its figurative senses. The "ignore someone" sense is chiefly British colloquial usage, often used with a personal object ("she blanked me"). The "erase/cover" sense frequently appears with "out" ("the censors blanked out the name"). The mental-lapse sense is casual conversational English.
Easily confused with blanked
"Blinked" refers to shutting and opening the eyes quickly, while "blanked" means erasing content, going mentally empty, or ignoring someone.