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balk
[ 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.
Synonyms: , , , ,
- 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.
balk
/ bɔːk; bɔːlk /
verb
- intrusually foll byat to stop short, esp suddenly or unexpectedly; jib
the horse balked at the jump
- intrfoll byat to turn away abruptly; recoil
he balked at the idea of murder
- tr to thwart, check, disappoint, or foil
he was balked in his plans
- tr to avoid deliberately
he 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
Derived Forms
- ˈ, noun
Other 51Թ Forms
- İ noun
- iԲ· adverb
- ܲ· adjective
- ܲ·iԲ adjective
- un·iԲ· adverb
51Թ History and Origins
Origin of balk1
51Թ History and Origins
Origin of balk1
Idioms and Phrases
- in balk, inside any of the spaces in back of the balklines on a billiard table.
Example Sentences
Democrats in the U.S. have balked at the extent of the tariffs.
According to the board, David Geier advised that the patient undergo 22 blood tests; the mother balked when lab technicians told her the blood work would require “an insane amount of blood.”
Variety reports that the country superstar balked at a chance to star in a sketch alongside Bowen Yang and host Mikey Madison.
Carlsbad 1, JSerra 0: The winning run came home on a balk in the 10th inning for Carlsbad.
Even some far-right Christian conservatives, who otherwise back Trump wholeheartedly, are angry about his relationship to White, calling her views "heresy," and balking at treating their religion like a get-rich-quick scheme.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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