Adjacent Words

Bilk definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

BILK, v.t. To frustrate or disappoint; to deceive or defraud, by non-fulfillment of engagement; as, to bilk a creditor.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: cheat somebody out of what is due, especially money
2: hinder or prevent (the efforts, plans, or desires) of; "What ultimately frustrated every challenger was Ruth's amazing September surge"; "foil your opponent" [syn: thwart, queer, spoil, scotch, foil, cross, frustrate, baffle, bilk]
3: evade payment to; "He bilked his creditors"
4: escape, either physically or mentally; "The thief eluded the police"; "This difficult idea seems to evade her"; "The event evades explanation" [syn: elude, evade, bilk]

Merriam Webster's

I. transitive verb Etymology: perhaps alteration of ²balk Date: 1647 1. to block the free development of ; frustrate <fate bilks their hopes> 2. a. to cheat out of something valuable ; defraud b. to evade payment of or to <bilks his creditors> 3. to slip away from <bilked her pursuers> • bilker noun II. noun Date: 1790 an untrustworthy tricky individual ; cheat

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. sl. 1 cheat. 2 give the slip to. 3 avoid paying (a creditor or debt). Derivatives: bilker n. Etymology: orig. uncert., perh. = BALK: earliest use (17th c.) in cribbage, = spoil one's opponent's score

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Bilk Bilk, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bilked; p. pr. & vb. n. Bilking.] [Origin unknown. Cf. Balk.] To frustrate or disappoint; to deceive or defraud, by nonfulfillment of engagement; to leave in the lurch; to give the slip to; as, to bilk a creditor. --Thackeray.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Bilk Bilk, n. 1. A thwarting an adversary in cribbage by spoiling his score; a balk. 2. A cheat; a trick; a hoax. --Hudibras. 3. Nonsense; vain words. --B. Jonson. 4. A person who tricks a creditor; an untrustworthy, tricky person. --Marryat.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(bilks, bilking, bilked) To bilk someone out of something, especially money, means to cheat them out of it. (AM INFORMAL) They are charged with bilking investors out of millions of dollars. = cheat VERB: V n out of n, also V n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. Deceive (by not fulfilling an engagement), disappoint, frustrate, thwart, balk, leave in the lurch, elude.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

To cheat. Let us bilk the rattling cove; let us cheat the hackney coachman of his fare. Cant. Bilking a coachman, a box-keeper, and a poor whore, were formerly, among men of the town, thought gallant actions.

Moby Thesaurus

avoid, baffle, balk, beat, beguile of, bunco, burn, cast down, cheat, chisel, chouse, chouse out of, circumvent, cog, cog the dice, con, cozen, crib, cross, dash, defeat, defeat expectation, defraud, diddle, disappoint, disillusion, dissatisfy, do, do in, do out of, dodge, double, duck, elude, eschew, euchre, evade, finagle, flam, fleece, flimflam, fob, foil, frustrate, fudge, gouge, gull, gyp, have, hocus, hocus-pocus, let down, mulct, overreach, pack the deal, pigeon, practice fraud upon, rook, ruin, scam, screw, sell gold bricks, shake, shave, shortchange, shun, shy, stack the cards, stick, sting, swindle, take a dive, tantalize, tease, thimblerig, throw a fight, thwart, victimize