balky
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of balky
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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While guessing that Ohtani’s balky left knee would not allow him to be 100% by October, manager Dave Roberts openly wondered Saturday whether a pitching comeback is worth the effort.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026
I jury-rigged a heating element for our Kenmore refrigerator’s balky ice-maker water-feed tube.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 2, 2026
There’s an argument to be made that the feds could believe they have a balky case and want to bloody up Adams in the public eye ahead of a trial.
From Slate ● Sep. 12, 2024
During individual drills, he rolled out and threw passes with no outward sign of a balky hamstring.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2024
There he was immersed in an effort to produce high-energy protons to probe the atomic nucleus, using his balky Tesla coils and Van de Graaff generators.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
After dozens of false starts, he wants to get two of his balkier clients to say yes to a house he shows them.
From Time Magazine Archive
Carter may also find the Federal Reserve balkier than before.
From Time Magazine Archive
I was seated at my typewriter and the book was balkier than usual, and I wished that the clumper at the door would go away.
From Dawn O'Hara, the Girl Who Laughed by Edna Ferber
By the afternoon, three horses remained — the toughest and balkiest to get into trailers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 6, 2017
Joe made more news as baseball's balkiest holdout.
From Time Magazine Archive
Replace the balkiest portions with gleaming fiber-optic wire.
From Time Magazine Archive
It was the balkiest Yankee machine since Manager Joe McCarthy got behind the steering wheel nine years ago.
From Time Magazine Archive
All those stately equipages were good, and the one that fell to us mounted the hill to our hotel by a grade so insinuating that the balkiest horse in Frascati could hardly have suspected it.
From Roman Holidays, and Others by William Dean Howells
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