This is an Australian verb I've learned recently and one I'm not entirely sure I'll use properly (though I'm sure a particular friend could correct me if I'm particularly wrong).
Basically, I think it's along the lines of "to stay at the home of someone at least vaguely connected to you for free."
It's the whole using it in a sentence bit that I'm a bit concerned about. I think it'd go, say: "I billeted at Kim's place because I follow her blog and she's really cool," but it could be "Kim billeted me up for a night," or possibly "I was totally billeted at Kim's." The last two just sound kind of wrong, but, hey, it's an Australian word, so who knows?
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
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2 comments:
It's usually more of an organised thing, in my experience. Such as if a group of people visit a school, church, or whatever and stay in people's homes.
According to widipedia, it's used like this in Canada for visiting performers.
(and I can't seem to log into blogger so please excuse my apparent anonymity)
Caroline
You'd actually say "I was billetted" rather than "I billetted" because it's the person who owns the house who does the action, not the person who receives the free board.
The term gets used a lot by schools (visiting sports teams, short-term exchange students) and churches (visiting guest speakers, artists such as Watoto choir) as in, "Could you billet a student / choir member...for a few nights?"
Apparently a British term originally from French.
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