walk
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: wôk
ipa: /wɔːk/
ipa: /waːk/
ipa: /woːk/
enpr: wôk
ipa: /wɔk/
enpr: wäk
ipa: /wɑk/
homophone: wok (cot–caught merger)
rhymes: -ɔːk
Forms: form: walks
form: walking
form: walked
form: walked
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: walk
form: walk
form: walked
form: walk
form: walkest
form: walked
form: walkedst
form: walks
form: walketh
form: walked
form: walk
form: walked
form: walk
form: walked
form: walk
form: -
form: walking
form: walked
Etymology: From Middle English walken (“to move, walk, roll, turn, revolve, toss”), a conflation of Old English wealcan (“to move round, revolve, roll, turn, toss”) (ġewealcan (“to go, traverse”)) and Old English wealcian (“to curl, roll up”); both from Proto-West Germanic *walkan, from Proto-Germanic *walkaną, *walkōną (“to twist, turn, roll about, full”), from Proto-Indo-European *walg- (“to twist, turn, move”).
Cognate with Scots walk (“to walk”), Saterland Frisian walkje (“to full; drum; flex; mill”), West Frisian swalkje (“to wander, roam”), Dutch walken (“to full, work hair or felt”), Dutch zwalken (“to wander about”), German walken (“to flex, full, mill, drum”), Danish valke (“to waulk, full”), Latin valgus (“bandy-legged, bow-legged”), Sanskrit वल्गति (válgati, “amble, bound, leap, dance”). More at vagrant and whelk. Doublet of waulk.
Senses: examples: text: To walk briskly for an hour every day is to keep fit.
text: Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. […] His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn. He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.
ref: 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 16:
text: Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 257:
glosses: To move on the feet by alternately setting each foot (or pair or group of feet, in the case of animals with four or more feet) forward, with at least one foot on the ground at all times. Compare run.
examples: text: If you can’t present a better case, that robber is going to walk.
topics: law
glosses: To "walk free", i.e. to win, or avoid, a criminal court case, particularly when actually guilty.
examples: text: If you leave your wallet lying around, it’s going to walk.
glosses: Of an object, to go missing or be stolen.
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To walk off the field, as if given out, after the fielding side appeals and before the umpire has ruled; done as a matter of sportsmanship when the batsman believes he is out.
raw_tags: of a batsman
examples: text: I walk two miles to school every day.
text: The museum’s not far from here – you can walk it.
text: Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. […] His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn. He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.
ref: 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 16:
glosses: To travel (a distance) by walking.
examples: text: I walk the dog every morning.
text: Will you walk me home?
text: I will rather trust[…]a thief to walk my ambling gelding.
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 47:
glosses: To take for a walk or accompany on a walk.
topics: ball-games
baseball
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To allow a batter to reach base by pitching four balls.
topics: ball-games
baseball
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To reach base by being pitched four balls.
raw_tags: of a batter
examples: text: If we don't bolt the washing machine down, it's going to walk across the room.
glosses: Of an object or machine, to move by shifting between two positions, as if it were walking.
examples: text: I carefully walked the ladder along the wall.
glosses: To cause something to move in such a way.
glosses: To full; to beat (cloth) to give it the consistency of felt.
examples: text: I walked the streets aimlessly.
text: Debugging this computer program involved walking the heap.
glosses: To traverse by walking (or analogous gradual movement).
examples: text: Still keeping his tail in the air, Red coaxed the “Airknocker” ahead and as we grasped his struts he slowly retarded the throttle. We walked the plane between two tiedown blocks and not until we had tied the struts did Red cut the switch.
ref: 1950, Flying Magazine, volume 46, number 3, page 18:
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To operate the left and right throttles of (an aircraft) in alternation.
examples: text: If we don't offer him more money he'll walk.
text: He will make their cowes and garrans to walk.
ref: 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC, page 39:
glosses: To leave, resign.
examples: text: The county had a successful defense only because the judge kept telling the jury at every chance that the cyclist should have walked his bicycle like a pedestrian.
ref: 1994, John Forester, Bicycle Transportation: A Handbook for Cycling Transportation Engineers, MIT Press, page 245:
glosses: To push (a vehicle) alongside oneself as one walks.
examples: text: We walk perversely with God, and he will walk crookedly toward us.
ref: , page 35
glosses: To behave; to pursue a course of life; to conduct oneself.
examples: text: October 9, 1550, Hugh Latimer, sermon preached at Stamford, link
I heard a pen walking in the chimney behind the cloth.
text: There have been reports of cases where, in the event of a girl having died, a man was chosen to go through the marriage ceremony and even have intercourse with the body, before burial, so that she might not "walk".
ref: 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 32:
glosses: To go restlessly about; said of things or persons expected to remain quiet, such as a sleeping person, or the spirit of a dead person.
examples: text: her toung did walke / In fowle reproch.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 5, page 233:
text: I have heard, but not believed, the spirits of the dead / May walk again.
ref: c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 288:
text: Come, doe you thinke, I'ld walke in any plot
ref: 1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: […] [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, →OCLC, Act III:
glosses: To be in motion; to act; to move.
glosses: To put, keep, or train (a puppy) in a walk, or training area for dogfighting.
glosses: To move (a guest) to another hotel if their confirmed reservation is not available on the day of check-in.
topics: engineering
machining
mechanical-engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
qualifier: such as a drill bit or reamer
glosses: To tend to move radially while feeding axially, whether tending toward on-center or tending toward off-center. Walking may be desirable (e.g., when a reamer walks into concentricity) or undesirable (e.g., when a twist drill walks into eccentricity.)
raw_tags: of a tool
Synonyms: sense: colloquial: go free
word: be acquit
word: get off
word: go free
sense: be stolen
word: be
sense: be stolen
word: get stolen
sense: be stolen
word: be
sense: be stolen
word: get nick
sense: be stolen
word: get pinch
sense: beat cloth
word: full
sense: beat cloth
word: waulk
word: ambulate
word: pedestrianize
word: raik
Hypernyms: word: move
Hyponyms: word: forwalk
word: tightrope-walk
word: walk away from
word: walk away with
word: walk behind
word: walk down
word: walk in
word: walk into
word: walk off
word: walk on
word: walk on by
word: walk out
word: walk over
word: walk tall
word: walk through
word: amble
word: bolt
word: canter
word: circumambulate
word: crawl
word: cruise
word: creep
word: dash
word: dawdle
word: drag
word: flee
word: flounce
word: gambol
word: hike
word: hobble
word: hoof it
word: hurry
word: hustle
word: inch
word: jog
word: limp
word: make off
word: march
word: meander
word: mosey
word: parade
word: perambulate
word: peregrinate
word: plod
word: promenade
word: poke
word: pussyfoot
word: ramble
word: rush
word: sashay
word: saunter
word: shamble
word: scoot
word: shin
word: sidle
word: skedaddle
word: skulk
word: slink
word: slog
word: skip
word: skirr
word: stomp
word: stroll
word: strut
word: swagger
word: tiptoe
word: toddle
word: traipse
word: tread
word: tred
word: trek
word: trot
word: trudge
word: wade
word: wander
Derived terms: dogwalk
frog-walk
perp-walk
walk about
walk all over
walk-alone
walk a mile in someone's shoes
walk and chew gum at the same time
walk around
walk around money
walk-around money
walk a straight line
walkathon
walk a tightrope
walk-away
walk away
walk back
walk back the cat
walk down the aisle
walker
Walker
walk good
walkies
walkie-talkie
walk-in
walk in circles
walk in on
walk in someone's shoes
walk in straight lines
walk it
walk it like one talks it
walk it off
walk like an Egyptian
walkman
Walkman
walk-off
walk off the job
walk off with
walk-on
walk on air
walk on broken glass
walk on eggshells
walk one's chalks
walk one's shots
walk-on girl
walk on sunshine
walk on the wild side
walk on water
walk out on
walk out with
walkover
walk-over
walk softly and carry a big stick
walk Spanish
walk the beat
walk the boards
walk the cat back
walk the chalk
walk the chalk line
walk the chalk mark
walk the dog
walk the floor
walk the gangplank
walk the hospitals
walk the line
walk the plank
walk the streets
walk the talk
walk the walk
walk-through
walk turkey
walk-up
walk with
Related terms: word: move slowly
word: run
word: way
word: gait
word: journey