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Glite Dictionary
🤔 To forget suddenly 📝 To hide information
to blank out

to blank out

1 6.3
To suddenly be unable to remember something for a short time
  • phrasal verb
  • /blæŋk aʊt/
  • Informal
translation icon : bloquearse
  • During the presentation, I suddenly blanked out and couldn't recall what I wanted to say.

Then you go and you make your first episode and and you blank out.

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Examples

  • I blanked out for a while.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • I just completely blanked out and just stood there dumbly at the front of the class and finally just had to kind of sit back down, red faced, not having said a word.

  • He often blanks out when he tries to remember details from his childhood.

  • After staring at the exam paper for too long, I blanked out and forgot all the answers.

Synonyms

to forget
vsto blank out
∞ 1.0

Not remember something you should remember

is a sudden mental block rather than a general inability to remember
to totally forgot
vsto blank out
  • Informal
30 1.8

Do not remember something at all

is a sudden temporary mental block rather than permanent loss of memory
to draw a blank
vsto blank out
  • Informal
7 4.5

Fail to remember something when you try to think of it

is a sudden mental block rather than a mere recall difficulty

Antonyms

to remember
∞ 1.0

To think about something from the past

How Clear

to recall
∞ 2.4
to blank out
  • Informal
1 6.3
to forget
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

blank out infinitive
blanked out past
blanked out past participle
blanking out present participle
blanks out third person singular

Morphology

blank + out

The sense 'to remove or obscure words/information' is directly compositional from 'blank' (make empty or remove content) plus the particle 'out' (completely/remove), following a common English verb + particle pattern. This construction is predictable for learners who know the base meanings, so the MWE is immediately inferable without prior exposure.

Etymology

Blank out comes from the image of your mind becoming a blank page, where the writing seems to disappear or be wiped away. So it now means 'suddenly unable to remember'.