look blank

look blank

To have no emotional articulation in one's expression, usually implying befuddlement, incomprehension, or being overwhelmed by something. The customer service agent just looked blank when I asked how to request a refund. Why does he look blank like that? Does he not remember me?
See also: blank, look
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

look blank

Be expressionless, appear dumbstruck or overwhelmed. For example, When I asked her how to get to the hospital, she looked blank. [c. 1700]
See also: blank, look
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
See also:
  • blank look on (one's) face
  • give (someone) a blank look
  • give (someone) a blank stare
  • give a blank look
  • get (one's) priorities straight
  • be up to (one's) eyes in (something)
  • be up to (one's) neck in (something)
  • be up to your neck in something
  • be up to (one's) ears in (something)
  • be up to your ears in something
References in classic literature
The score creeps up to fifty; the boys begin to look blank; and the spectators, who are now mustering strong, are very silent.
I look blank. He looks at me as if I was something sickly and downmarket and says, if Sir does not know his colors maybe it would be better if madame came and made the selection.
Some look blank, some smile back and gesture: no Hindi, no English -- "Arabic?
"If you say our name to a lot of people they might look blank, but play our songs and they will know them," he says.
Maybe not all of the nurses look blank when you tell them your father has had a cholecystectomy and say "A what?" Maybe some of them do know how to put a spoon into a bowl of jelly and feed it to their patient.
A SIMPLE question most people may have been asked is "Where are you from?" You proudly tell them and they look blank, then you usually have to resort to saying Middlesbrough, as you know they must have heard of the football club.
If I ask someone, "How was that, how did that feel?" I don't want them to look blank or, worse, ask me, "Was that OK?" I want students to experience themselves in the movement and be their own teachers.
Neither army won, flags and banners are discarded, and the woman in the newsagent who asked me who would prevail will look blank when I tell her it was Imperial Commander.
Ask any young drinker where his or her Budweiser comes from and they'll look blank. It doesn't really bother them, they're more interested in where it's going.
Celebs are shown to be kind and caring, while the disadvantaged look blank and cry.
Nearly 100 years after the annual day was created to mark the struggle for equal rights for half the world's population, most women in Swat look blank and go silent when asked about gender rights and discrimination.
In the January issue Mike Venturino wrote regarding the PPSh-41 submachine gun: "Most people also ask, "What cartridge is a PPsh41 chambered for?" I say 7.62x25mm and again they look blank. Then when you tell them it's interchangeable with the .30 Mauser of "Broomhandle" fame, again the lights come on."
Mention the name and they look blank or mumble something about the European treaty that gave birth to the euro, signed there in 1992.
You see celebrities who've been nipped and tucked, and they look blank, expressionless.
The other quote I get is: "No' seen you on the telly much." When I tell them I am busier than ever, they look blank.