carte blanche

English

Etymology

Borrowing from French carte blanche, referring to a "blank card".

Pronunciation

Noun

carte blanche (plural cartes blanches)

  1. Unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority
    • 2012 May 15, Scott Tobias, “Film: Reviews: The Dictator”, The Onion AV Club:
      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.
    • 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.

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Last modified on 8 February 2013, at 18:21