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Balk   /bɔk/  /bɑlk/   Listen
noun
Balk  n.  
1.
A ridge of land left unplowed between furrows, or at the end of a field; a piece missed by the plow slipping aside. "Bad plowmen made balks of such ground."
2.
A great beam, rafter, or timber; esp., the tie-beam of a house. The loft above was called "the balks." "Tubs hanging in the balks."
3.
(Mil.) One of the beams connecting the successive supports of a trestle bridge or bateau bridge.
4.
A hindrance or disappointment; a check. "A balk to the confidence of the bold undertaker."
5.
A sudden and obstinate stop; a failure.
6.
(Baseball) A deceptive gesture of the pitcher, as if to deliver the ball. It is illegal and is penalized by allowing the runners on base to advance one base.
Balk line (Billiards), a line across a billiard table near one end, marking a limit within which the cue balls are placed in beginning a game; also, a line around the table, parallel to the sides, used in playing a particular game, called the balk line game.


verb
Balk  v. t.  (past & past part. balked; pres. part. balking)  
1.
To leave or make balks in. (Obs.)
2.
To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles. (Obs.) "Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights, Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter see."
3.
To omit, miss, or overlook by chance. (Obs.)
4.
To miss intentionally; to avoid; to shun; to refuse; to let go by; to shirk. (Obs. or Obsolescent) "By reason of the contagion then in London, we balked the inns." "Sick he is, and keeps his bed, and balks his meat." "Nor doth he any creature balk, But lays on all he meeteth."
5.
To disappoint; to frustrate; to foil; to baffle; to thwart; as, to balk expectation. "They shall not balk my entrance."


Balk  v. i.  
1.
To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition. (Obs.) "In strifeful terms with him to balk."
2.
To stop abruptly and stand still obstinately; to jib; to stop short; to swerve; as, the horse balks. Note: This has been regarded as an Americanism, but it occurs in Spenser's "Faerie Queene," Book IV., 10, xxv. "Ne ever ought but of their true loves talkt, Ne ever for rebuke or blame of any balkt."
3.
(Baseball) To commit a balk (6); of a pitcher.


Balk  v. i.  To indicate to fishermen, by shouts or signals from shore, the direction taken by the shoals of herring.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Balk" Quotes from Famous Books



... no more about it. I have determined to marry for money, as you well know; but it appears to me as if there was something which invariably prevents the step being taken; and, upon my honour, fortune seems so inclined to balk me in my wishes, that I begin to snap my fingers at her, and am becoming quite indifferent. I suffer now under the evil of poverty; but it is impossible to say what other evils may be in store if I were to change my condition, as the ladies say. Come what will, in one thing I am determined—that ...
— The Poacher - Joseph Rushbrook • Frederick Marryat
... to balk his progress, he told himself. He had his company, he had the location for his big range stuff, he had all the financial backing any reasonable man could want. He had a salary that in itself gauged the prestige he had gained among producers, and as an added ...
— The Heritage of the Sioux • B.M. Bower
... early Renaissance. It may be added parenthetically that even in respect to his moral character he will not be fairly judged if we listen solely to the complaints of the German Church, which his fickleness helped to balk of the council ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 07 • Various
... middle height, was sure of not being recognized, and he and his comrades looked forward to whatever might happen as merely an amusing jest. At the same time they had to balk the hated chief of the city guards and his menials of their immediate prey; but they had played them a trick or two ere now. It might turn out really badly for Alexander; still, it was only needful to keep him concealed till Caesar should arrive; ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... turning. His pursuers never knew, did he pass from sight behind a covert of tents and mounds, where he would bob up next. He avoided shafts and pools as if by a miracle; ran along greasy planks without a slip; and, where these had been removed to balk the police, he jumped the holes, taking risks that were not for a sane man. Once he fell, but, enslimed from head to foot, wringing wet and hatless, was up again in a twinkling. His enemies were less sure-footed than he, ...
— Australia Felix • Henry Handel Richardson


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