balk
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /bɔːk/
ipa: /bɔːlk/
ipa: /bɔk/
ipa: /bɑk/
rhymes: -ɔːk
Forms: form: balks
form: balking
form: balked
form: balked
form: baulk
Etymology: From Middle English balke, from Old English balca, either from or influenced by Old Norse bálkr (“partition, ridge of land”), from Proto-Germanic *balkô. Cognate with Dutch balk (“balk”), German Balken (“balk”), Italian balcone (“balcony”).
Senses: glosses: To pass over or by.
synonyms: miss
overlook
glosses: To omit, miss, or overlook by chance.
examples: text: By reason of the contagion then in London, we balked the nns.
ref: 1641 November 22 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 12 November 1641]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC:
text: Sick he is, and keeps his bed, and balks his meat.
ref: 1612–1626, [Joseph Hall], “(please specify the page)”, in [Contemplations vpon the Principall Passages of the Holy Storie], volume (please specify |volume=II, V, or VI), London, →OCLC:
text: Nor doth he any creature balk, / But lays on all he meeteth.
ref: 1627, Michael Drayton, Nymphidia:
synonyms: avoid
shun
refuse
shirk
glosses: To miss intentionally; to avoid.
examples: text: Balked for the second time, the passion of his grief had found another outlet, was transformed into a passion of agonized rage.
ref: 1932, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, London: Chatto & Windus:
glosses: To stop, check, block; to hinder, impede.
examples: text: The horse balked.
text: I’ve seen cattle that were handled in two identical facilities easily walk through one and balk in the other.
ref: 1995, Temple Grandin, Thinking in Pictures, page 6:
synonyms: jib
glosses: To stop short and refuse to go on.
examples: text: Real affection, it seemed, he could not have for me; it had been only fitful passion: that was balked; he would want me no more
ref: 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter XI, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 303:
glosses: To refuse suddenly.
examples: text: to balk expectation
text: Well, / I know that none who enter there return / As they have enter'd—many never; but / They shall not balk my entrance.
ref: 1821, Lord Byron, “The Two Foscari, an Historical Tragedy”, in Sardanapalus, a Tragedy; The Two Foscari, a Tragedy; Cain, a Mystery, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 195:
synonyms: frustrate
foil#Verb_2
baffle
thwart
glosses: To disappoint; to frustrate.
examples: text: Her list in strifull termes with him to balke
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 12:
glosses: To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition.
examples: text: But so well halt no man the plough,
That he ne balketh other while
ref: c. 1386–1390, John Gower, edited by Reinhold Pauli, Confessio Amantis of John Gower: Edited and Collated with the Best Manuscripts, volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Bell and Daldy […], published 1857, →OCLC:
glosses: To leave or make balks in.
examples: text: Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights, / Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter see.
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
glosses: To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles.
examples: text: The best advice you can receive regarding balking is to always maintain poise and composure on the mound.
ref: 2013, Aaron Wisewell, The Baseball Coach:
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To make a deceptive motion to deceive another player.
Derived terms: balked landing
balking
balkingly
unbalked