balk

or baulk

[bawk]

verb (used without object)

to stop, as at an obstacle, and refuse to proceed or to do something specified (usually followed by at): He balked at making the speech.
(of a horse, mule, etc.) to stop short and stubbornly refuse to go on.
Baseball. to commit a balk.

verb (used with object)

to place an obstacle in the way of; hinder; thwart: a sudden reversal that balked her hopes.
Archaic. to let slip; fail to use: to balk an opportunity.

noun

a check or hindrance; defeat; disappointment.
a strip of land left unplowed.
a crossbeam in the roof of a house that unites and supports the rafters; tie beam.
any heavy timber used for building purposes.
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.
Billiards. any of the eight panels or compartments lying between the cushions of the table and the balklines.
Obsolete. a miss, slip, or failure: to make a balk.

Idioms

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

Origin of balk

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, Slovene blazína, Lithuanian balžíenas beam. See balcony

Related formsbalk·er, nounbalk·ing·ly, adverbun·balked, adjectiveun·balk·ing, adjectiveun·balk·ing·ly, adverb

Synonyms for balk

4. check, retard, obstruct, impede, prevent.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for balks

hesitate, refuse, resist, recoil, flinch, disappoint, stall, dodge, cramp, shy, desist, evade, demur, crimp, shirk, hinder, baffle, bar, obstruct, prevent

Examples from the Web for balks

Historical Examples of balks

The charity that balks at giving, reacts upon a man and deadens him.
The Untroubled Mind
Herbert J. Hall
Balks make winter firing when coal is dear and money scarce.
A Poor Man's House
Stephen Sydney Reynolds
Three balks shall be called "no vault," and must be recorded as one of the three trials.
How to Fence
Aaron A. Warford
It is under this custom that the strips and balks are gradually disappearing.
The English Village Community
Frederic Seebohm
On each side is a gate built of balks of timber, and so heavy that it must run on wheels.
Burma
R.Talbot Kelly

British Dictionary definitions for balks

balk

baulk

verb

(intr usually foll by at) to stop short, esp suddenly or unexpectedly; jibthe horse balked at the jump
(intr foll by at) to turn away abruptly; recoilhe balked at the idea of murder
(tr) to thwart, check, disappoint, or foilhe was balked in his plans
(tr) to avoid deliberatelyhe balked the question
(tr) to miss unintentionally

noun

a roughly squared heavy timber beam
a timber tie beam of a roof
an unploughed ridge to prevent soil erosion or mark a division on common land
an obstacle; hindrance; disappointment
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

Word Origin for balk

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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for balks

balk

Old English balca "ridge, bank," from or influenced by Old Norse balkr "ridge of land," especially between two plowed furrows, both from Proto-Germanic *balkan-, *belkan- (cf. Old Saxon balko, Danish bjelke, Old Frisian balka, Old High German balcho, German Balken "beam, rafter"), from PIE *bhelg- "beam, plank" (cf. Latin fulcire "to prop up, support," fulcrum "bedpost;" Lithuanian balziena "cross-bar;" and possibly Greek phalanx "trunk, log, line of battle"). Modern senses are figurative, representing the balk as a hindrance or obstruction (see balk (v.)). Baseball sense is first attested 1845.

balk

late 14c., "to leave an unplowed ridge when plowing," from balk (n.). Extended meaning "to omit, intentionally neglect" is mid-15c. Most modern senses are figurative, from the notion of a balk in the fields as a hindrance or obstruction: sense of "stop short" (as a horse confronted with an obstacle) is late 15c.; that of "to refuse" is 1580s. Related: Balked; balking.