baulk

British  

/ bɔːk, bɔːlk /

noun

1. Also (US): balk.  billiards

   1. the space, usually 29 inches deep, between the baulk line and the bottom cushion

   2. (in baulk-line games) one of the spaces between the cushions and the baulk lines

   3. inside one of these spaces

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

3. 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

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verb

1. a variant spelling of balk

Example Sentences

Wilson took the 20th frame with timely half-century and punished a loose break-off shot by Jones in the next, making 83 after the white caught the blue on the way back to baulk.

From BBC • May 6, 2024

He would hate asking people for money; he would baulk at saying contradictory things to different audiences; if an opponent made a good point in a debate, he would say so.

From The Guardian • Jun. 21, 2018

The "save more tomorrow" approach pioneered in the United States saw employees automatically signed up to pay into a pension, but starting with very small contributions to avoid loss-aversion that could make them baulk.

From BBC • Oct. 9, 2017

Purists may baulk at his inclusion of pellagra, beriberi and other disorders of malnutrition, but that allows for a richer range of material and interpretation.

From Nature • Dec. 13, 2016

Just as over-scrupulous historians refuse to use the words ‘revolution’, ‘science’ and ‘scientist’ when writing about the seventeenth century, they baulk at using Butterfield’s other word, ‘modern’, because it, too, seems to them inherently anachronistic.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton