BILLET  . (I) (Like the Fr. billet, a diminutive of bille, a

writing), a small paper or " note," commonly used in the 18th and early 19th centuries as a " billet of invitation." A particular use of the word in this sense is to denote an order issued to a soldier entitling him to quarters with a certain person (see BILLETING) . From meaning the official order, the word billet came to be loosely used of the quarters thus obtained, giving rise to such colloquial expressions as " a good billet." Hence arises the sense of " billet " as the destination allotted to any-thing, for example in the saying of William III . " every bullet has its billet." Another special sense of the word is that of a voting-paper, found in the 17th century, especially with reference to the Act of Billets passed by the Scottish parliament in 1662 . (2) (From the diminutive billette or billet of the Fr. bille, the trunk of a tree), a piece of wood roughly cylindrical, cut for use as fuel . In medieval England it was used of the club or bludgeon which was the weapon proper to the serf (Du Cange, s . Billus) . The name has been transferred to various objects of a similar shape: to ingots of gold, for example, or bars of iron; and in heraldry, to a bearing of rectangular shape . The term is applied in architecture to a form of ornamental moulding much used in Norman and sometimes in Early English work . It bears a resemblance to small billets of wood arranged at regular intervals in a sunk moulding . In French architecture it is found in early work and there, sometimes, forms the decoration of a string-course under the gutter, with two or three rows of billets .