balk

Or baulk

[bawk]

verb (used without object)

1. to stop, as at an obstacle, and refuse to proceed or to do something specified (usually followed byat ).

   He balked at making the speech.

2. (of a horse, mule, etc.) to stop short and stubbornly refuse to go on.

3. Baseball.,  to commit a balk.

verb (used with object)

1. to place an obstacle in the way of; hinder; thwart.

   a sudden reversal that balked her hopes.

   Synonyms: prevent, impede, obstruct, retard, check

2. Archaic.,  to let slip; fail to use.

   to balk an opportunity.

noun

1. a check or hindrance; defeat; disappointment.

2. a strip of land left unplowed.

3. a crossbeam in the roof of a house that unites and supports the rafters; tie beam.

4. any heavy timber used for building purposes.

5. Baseball.,  an illegal motion by a pitcher while one or more runners are on base, as a pitch in which there is either an insufficient or too long a pause after the windup or stretch, a pretended throw to first or third base or to the batter with one foot on the pitcher's rubber, etc., resulting in a penalty advancing the runner or runners one base.

6. Billiards.,  any of the eight panels or compartments lying between the cushions of the table and the balklines.

7. Obsolete.,  a miss, slip, or failure.

   to make a balk.

balk

/ bɔːk, bɔːlk /

verb

1. to stop short, esp suddenly or unexpectedly; jib

   the horse balked at the jump

2. to turn away abruptly; recoil

   he balked at the idea of murder

3. (tr) to thwart, check, disappoint, or foil

   he was balked in his plans

4. (tr) to avoid deliberately

   he balked the question

5. (tr) to miss unintentionally

noun

1. a roughly squared heavy timber beam

2. a timber tie beam of a roof

3. an unploughed ridge to prevent soil erosion or mark a division on common land

4. an obstacle; hindrance; disappointment

5. baseball an illegal motion by a pitcher towards the plate or towards the base when there are runners on base, esp without delivering the ball

Other Word Forms

• balker noun
• balkingly adverb
• unbalked adjective
• unbalking adjective
• unbalkingly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of balk¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English balca “covering, beam, ridge”; cognate with Old Norse bǫlkr “bar, partition,” Dutch balk, Old Saxon balko, German Balken, Old Norse bjalki “beam,” Old English bolca “plank”; perhaps akin to Latin sufflāmen, Slovenian blazína, Lithuanian balžíenas “beam.” See balcony

Word History and Origins

Origin of balk¹

Old English balca ; related to Old Norse bálkr partition, Old High German balco beam

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. in balk, inside any of the spaces in back of the balklines on a billiard table.

Example Sentences

News organizations balked, saying the policy was a violation of the First Amendment and an attempt to limit press coverage.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

For this reason, many eating disorder treatment professionals balk at the idea of labeling some foods as addictive.

Read more on Salon

Potential buyers have balked when they learned the property came with an atom smasher.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Higher valuations are also a draw. FLock.io tried to raise its first funding round from European investors last year, but would-be backers balked at the startup’s lack of revenue, founder Jiahao Sun said.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Big platforms may balk at the proposal’s suggestion that they task one or more employees with ensuring compliance, said Garrett Johnson, associate professor of marketing at the Boston University Questrom School of Business.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• flinch 
• hesitate 
• recoil 
• refuse 
• resist 
• turn down