Dictionary

carte blanche en · ADV

Pronunciation

• /(ˈ)kɑɹt ˈblɑn(t)ʃ/ (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio
• kärt-blänsh (General-American)
• /(ˈ)kɑːt ˈblɑːnʃ/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

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

Meanings

1. As an undifferentiated mass, without regard to distinctions; willy-nilly. (Possibly from confusion with another French phrase, en masse.)
   • 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). 2014, Robert J. Lake, A Social History of Tennis in Britain, →ISBN:
   • 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? 2007, Gordon J. Hilsman, Intimate Spirituality: The Catholic Way of Love and Sex, →ISBN, page 114:

carte blanche en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /(ˈ)kɑɹt ˈblɑn(t)ʃ/ (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio
• kärt-blänsh (General-American)
• /(ˈ)kɑːt ˈblɑːnʃ/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

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

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) Unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority.
   • Baron Cohen and director Larry Charles have indeed retreated with The Dictator, but they’ve gone back 80 years, when the Marx Brothers were given carte blanche at Paramount Pictures with a five-movie run that ended with their best movie, 1933’s Duck Soup. 2012 May 15, Scott Tobias, “Film: Reviews: The Dictator”, in The Onion AV Club, archived from the original on 11 Jul 2012:
   • “[…] 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 ?” 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
   • That’s especially the case since the Supreme Court issued a ruling last year that provides a former president with immunity from criminal prosecution for all “official acts” taken while in office. Trump and MAGA world interpret this, and not without cause, as giving them carte blanche. 2025 March 20, Peter Wehner, “Trump’s Appetite for Revenge Is Insatiable”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 20 Mar 2025:
   • 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. 1970, Philip Slater, The Pursuit Of Loneliness, Boston: Beacon Press, page 128:
   • Somewhat unsurprisingly, unleashing the most powerful navy on the planet with carte blanche to exterminate slavers on sight saw a dramatic and sudden collapse in slaver numbers in the late 1840s and early 1850s. 2018 December 1, Drachinifel, 10:12 from the start, in Anti-Slavery Patrols - The West Africa Squadron, archived from the original on 29 Nov 2024:
2. (countable, uncountable) 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. (countable, uncountable) A hand with no court cards.
4. (countable, historical, uncountable) A chargecard issued by Diners Club International.

Forms

Synonyms

free rein · proxy in blank · free hand · proxy in blank · blank check

Translations (29)

sv carte blanche (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · fa کارت بلانش (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · ar تَفْوِيض مُطْلَق (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · ca carta blanca (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · bn আলিহুকুম (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · fi avoin valtakirja (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · es carta blanca (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · fi vapaat kädet (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · fa اختیار تام (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · ja 白紙委任 (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · es manos libres (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · id carte blanche (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · ja 白紙委任状 (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · uk карт-бла́нш (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · nl carte blanche (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · da carte blanche (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · pt carta branca (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · bg ка́ртбла́нш (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · it carta bianca (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · de Blankovollmacht (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · fr carte blanche (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · cmn 全權 /全权 (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · de freie Hand (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · cmn 全權委託 /全权委托 (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · id cek kosong (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · ru карт-бла́нш (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · ar ضَوْء أَخْضَر (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · pl carte blanche (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority) · de Carte blanche (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority)