carte blanche
13
8.1
- noun
- /kɑrt blɑnʃ/
- He's given them carte blanche and then worse, as Boris points out, quite effectively actually.
- give carte blanche
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Watch on YouTubeI don't think companies should have a carte blanche to exploit outer space.
- I don't think companies should have a carte blanche to exploit outer space.
- And it just, it gives him carte blanche to to prey on kids.
- So it was like gave these guys carte blanche to just spew out whatever they wanted.
- And so therefore the Chinese think that they have complete carte blanche to to roll in there.
- And so what's happening in the universities is that a small minority of men have sexual carte blanche in some sense.
- He's given them carte blanche and then worse, as Boris points out, quite effectively actually.
- And I think that's really what this case is, is going we hope to do is to to make it clear that a small ambiguity does not mean carte blanche to regulate anything.
- However, it doesn't say that they just carte blanche get released like the jailbreak Tucker mentioned.
Examples
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You have carte blanche.
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On a job like this, Mr. Allen, you'll have to give me carte blanche.
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Like he really, he gave me all the space I needed and carte blanche to do kind of whatever I want.
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We did have carte blanche.
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In the whole magazine, he would be the only person with carte blanche.
Fiction book (1990) -
I'm giving you carte blanche.
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Mr. Zinthrop has carte blanche to order anything he requires.
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Eliot, when we signed on here, you pretty much gave us carte blanche to run our own operation.
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She'd been given carte blanche, and she had furnished her room as she wished.
Fiction book (1991) -
The manager gave her carte blanche to create the marketing strategy she thought was best.
Synonyms
112
5.1
Freedom to decide what to do in a situation
32
7.2
Freedom to act without following normal rules, often in behavior or art
24
5.6
Permission that a person in charge gives to do something
11
4.1
Freedom to act and make choices without someone controlling you
9
4.1
The freedom to act or decide without being told what to do
7
4.6
Freedom to act or spend money without limits
1
3.6
Freedom to make decisions and act without strict limits
Antonyms
How Exempt
Surface Forms
Morphology
carte + blanche
This is a French loanphrase whose constituents are not productive English words for most learners; knowing the literal parts ('carte' = card/map, 'blanche' = white) does not allow a B1 learner to infer the meaning 'complete freedom or authority'. The expression is lexicalized and idiomatic in English, so its meaning cannot be transparently composed from the parts even if the learner recognizes them.
Etymology
Carte blanche may come from the French words carte and blanche, which mean a 'white card' or blank paper that a person in power could give someone and leave empty for them to fill in as they wished. That's why today carte blanche means 'complete freedom' or 'full authority' to act.