# blank

blank is a German adjective meaning “spotlessly clean, shining, polished”. Forms: blanker, am blanksten.

## Forms

- Comparative: blanker
- Superlative: am blanksten

## In other languages

- Русский: блестящий, сверкающий

## Meanings

1. _archaic_ bright
2. spotlessly clean, shining, polished
   - Du musst die Platte blank scheuern. — You must rub the platter until it is shining.
3. bare, naked, uncovered
   - mit blankem Hintern — with one’s behind uncovered
4. pure, sheer
   - Blanke Wut packte ihn. — Sheer anger seized him.
5. _colloquial_ broke, out of money
6. being a player’s last one of a respective grouping of cards (which means that the card is unprotected when the player must follow suit in trick-taking games)
   - Hätte ich Trumpf ausgespielt, wäre mein Fuchs blank gewesen. — If I had played trump, my “fox” [ace of diamonds in Doppelkopf] would have been my last trump card.
7. shiny
   - Der Ritter zog in seiner blanken Rüstung in den Kampf.
8. _colloquial_ broke; skint
   - Jetzt bin ich blank. (Das Geld ist alle – Der Boden der Kasse ist sichtbar/unverdeckt)

## Examples

- Kannst du mir was geben? Ich bin total blank. — Could you give me something? I'm flat broke.
- Ich kann nicht ins Kino gehen, bin blank. — I can not go to the movies, I'm bare of money.
- Du sagtest ja, du wollest die blanke Wahrheit hören. — You said you really wanted to hear the truth.
- Tom war total blank. — Tom was very broke.
- Sein Versuch in dem eisigen Wasser zu schwimmen, war blanker Wahnsinn. — It was mad of him to try to swim in the icy water.

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Sources: Meanings and forms from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR).
URL: https://wordwide.space/de-en/wort/blank