Adjacent Words

Balk definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

BALK, n. bauk.
1. A ridge of land, left unplowed, between furrows, or at the end of a field.
2. A great beam, or rafter.
3. Any thing left untouched, like a ridge in plowing.
4. A frustration; disappointment.
BALK, v.t. bauk. To disappoint; to frustrate.
2. To leave untouched; to miss or omit.
3. To pile, as in a heap or ridge.
4. To turn aside; to talk beside one's meaning.
5. To plow, leaving balks.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the area on a billiard table behind the balkline; "a player with ball in hand must play from the balk" [syn: balk, baulk]
2: something immaterial that interferes with or delays action or progress [syn: hindrance, hinderance, deterrent, impediment, balk, baulk, check, handicap]
3: one of several parallel sloping beams that support a roof [syn: rafter, balk, baulk]
4: an illegal pitching motion while runners are on base v
1: refuse to comply [syn: resist, balk, baulk, jib]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English balke, from Old English balca; akin to Old High German balko beam, Latin fulcire to prop, Greek phalanx log, phalanx Date: before 12th century 1. a ridge of land left unplowed as a dividing line or through carelessness 2. beam, rafter 3. hindrance, check 4. a. the space behind the balkline on a billiard table b. any of the outside divisions made by the balklines 5. failure of a player to complete a motion; especially an illegal motion of the pitcher in baseball while in position II. verb Date: 15th century transitive verb 1. archaic to pass over or by 2. to check or stop by or as if by an obstacle ; block intransitive verb 1. to stop short and refuse to proceed 2. to refuse abruptly — used with at <Congress balked at putting up the money — Thomas Fleming> 3. to commit a balk in sports Synonyms: see frustrate • balker noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

var. of BAULK.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Balk Balk, n. [AS. balca beam, ridge; akin to Icel. b[=a]lkr partition, bj[=a]lki beam, OS. balko, G. balken; cf. Gael. balc ridge of earth between two furrows. Cf. Balcony, Balk, v. i., 3d Bulk.] 1. A ridge of land left unplowed between furrows, or at the end of a field; a piece missed by the plow slipping aside. Bad plowmen made balks of such ground. --Fuller. 2. A great beam, rafter, or timber; esp., the tie-beam of a house. The loft above was called ``the balks.'' Tubs hanging in the balks. --Chaucer. 3. (Mil.) One of the beams connecting the successive supports of a trestle bridge or bateau bridge. 4. A hindrance or disappointment; a check. A balk to the confidence of the bold undertaker. --South. 5. A sudden and obstinate stop; a failure. 6. (Baseball) A deceptive gesture of the pitcher, as if to deliver the ball. Balk line (Billiards), a line across a billiard table near one end, marking a limit within which the cue balls are placed in beginning a game; also, a line around the table, parallel to the sides, used in playing a particular game, called the balk line game.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Balk Balk, v. i. 1. To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition. [Obs.] In strifeful terms with him to balk. --Spenser. 2. To stop abruptly and stand still obstinately; to jib; to stop short; to swerve; as, the horse balks. Note: This has been regarded as an Americanism, but it occurs in Spenser's ``Fa["e]rie Queene,'' Book IV., 10, xxv. Ne ever ought but of their true loves talkt, Ne ever for rebuke or blame of any balkt.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Balk Balk, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Balked (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Balking.] [From Balk a beam; orig. to put a balk or beam in one's way, in order to stop or hinder. Cf., for sense 2, AS. on balcan legan to lay in heaps.] 1. To leave or make balks in. [Obs.] --Gower. 2. To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles. [Obs.] Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights, Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter see. --Shak. 3. To omit, miss, or overlook by chance. [Obs.] 4. To miss intentionally; to avoid; to shun; to refuse; to let go by; to shirk. [Obs. or Obsolescent] By reason of the contagion then in London, we balked the ?nns. --Evelyn. Sick he is, and keeps his bed, and balks his meat. --Bp. Hall. Nor doth he any creature balk, But lays on all he meeteth. --Drayton. 5. To disappoint; to frustrate; to foil; to baffle; to ?hwart; as, to balk expectation. They shall not balk my entrance. --Byron.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Balk Balk, v. i. [Prob. from D. balken to bray, bawl.] To indicate to fishermen, by shouts or signals from shore, the direction taken by the shoals of herring.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

also baulk(balks, balking, balked) If you balk at something, you definitely do not want to do it or to let it happen. Even biology undergraduates may balk at animal experiments... Last October the bank balked, alarmed that a $24m profit had turned into a $20m deficit. VERB: V at n, V

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. Disappoint, frustrate, defeat, foil, baffle, disconcert, thwart.

Moby Thesaurus

baffle, bafflement, balk at, balking, be unwilling, beam, beat, begrudge, betrayed hope, bevue, bilk, blast, blasted expectation, blighted hope, blow, boggle, brave, buffet, cast down, challenge, check, checkmate, circumvent, comedown, confound, confounding, confront, confusion, contravene, counter, counteract, countermand, counterwork, cross, cruel disappointment, dash, dashed hope, decline, defeat, defeat expectation, defy, destroy, die hard, disappoint, disappointment, discomfit, discomfiture, disconcert, disconcertion, discountenance, dish, disillusion, disillusionment, disrupt, dissatisfaction, dissatisfy, elude, failure, fallen countenance, false move, false step, fiasco, fizzle, flinch, flummox, foil, foiling, forlorn hope, frustrate, frustration, gag, grudge, hang back, hold out, hope deferred, inadvertence, inadvertency, jib, knock the chocks, lapse, lapsus calami, lapsus linguae, let down, letdown, loose thread, mind, mirage, miscue, misstep, nonplus, not budge, not care to, not feel like, object to, omission, oversight, perplex, persevere, quail, rebuff, recoil, refuse, repulse, reversal, reverse, rout, ruin, sabotage, scotch, scruple, setback, shrink, shy, slip, slipup, sore disappointment, spike, spoil, stand out, stand pat, stick, stickle, stonewall, strain, stumble, stump, take no denial, tantalization, tantalize, tease, thwart, thwarting, trip, turn down, upset, would rather not, wrong step