baulk
- balk.
balk
or baulk
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- in balk, inside any of the spaces in back of the balklines on a billiard table.
Origin of balk
Synonyms
See more synonyms for balk on Thesaurus.comExamples from the Web for baulking
Historical Examples
We cannot steam any faster, and we are baulking the fire of our friends.
The British Navy BookCyril Field
Then Z. turned and made for home as fast as his baulking engine would allow.
Great Britain at WarJeffery Farnol
The secret he longed to learn, the seal and confirmation of his hard-won faith, or empty, baulking nothingness?
Stella FregeliusH. Rider Haggard
This is apparently intended as a piece of humour, in catching or baulking the audience.
On the whole, it is I who should be grateful to you for not baulking me in my scheme and for letting me have my own way.
Mr. Marx's SecretE. Phillips Oppenheim
balk
baulk
- (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
- 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
baulk
- 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
- a variant spelling of balk
Word Origin and History for baulking
balk
n.
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.
baulk
alternative spelling of balk, especially in billiards, in reference to a bad shot.
balk
v.
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.