Meaning & use

billet

noun·Advanced

Lodging assigned to a soldier or member of the armed forces, often in a private home or nonmilitary building.

See it in a sentence

The soldiers found their billet in a farmhouse just outside the village.

During the war, many families took in evacuees as a kind of civilian billet.

A note on using this word

Billet is mostly a military and historical term, referring specifically to temporary lodging assigned by authority, not any ordinary housing.

Words with a similar meaning

lodgingquarters

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Another way to use it

2. verb

To provide lodging for soldiers or others, especially in a private home.

Local families were asked to billet soldiers during the harsh winter campaign.

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