baulk

[bawk]

verb (used with or without object), noun

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. 2019

Examples from the Web for baulk

Historical Examples of baulk

She had concocted this scene in the carriage, and nothing should baulk her of it.
Where Angels Fear to Tread
E. M. Forster
She hit it hard on the side, and both balls came into baulk.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, February 11, 1914
Various
He had brought himself to the point that he would not conceive an obstacle that should baulk him.
Tancred
Benjamin Disraeli
You may baulk all the bailiffs, and defy any other man to serve you with a writ; but, by jingo!
Handy Andy, Volume One
Samuel Lover
Will was with me, and both ever too well disposed to baulk an opportunity.
Memoirs Of Fanny Hill
John Cleland

British Dictionary definitions for baulk

baulk

noun

Also (US): balk billiards

the space, usually 29 inches deep, between the baulk line and the bottom cushion
(in baulk-line games) one of the spaces between the cushions and the baulk lines
in baulkinside one of these spaces

archaeol a strip of earth left between excavation trenches for the study of the complete stratigraphy of a site

croquet either of two lines (A baulk and B baulk) at diagonally opposite ends of the court, from which the ball is struck into play

verb, noun

a variant spelling of balk

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 baulk

alternative spelling of balk, especially in billiards, in reference to a bad shot.

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.