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verb (used without object)
1.
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.
2.
(of a horse, mule, etc.) to stop short and stubbornly refuse to go on.
3.
Baseball. to commit a balk.
verb (used with object)
4.
to place an obstacle in the way of; hinder; thwart: a sudden reversal that balked her hopes.
5.
Archaic. to let slip; fail to use: to balk an opportunity.
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Balked
is always a great word to know.
So is quincunx. Does it mean:
| an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle. |
| a gadget; dingus; thingumbob. |
noun
Idiom6.
a check or hindrance; defeat; disappointment.
7.
a strip of land left unplowed.
8.
a crossbeam in the roof of a house that unites and supports the rafters; tie beam.
9.
any heavy timber used for building purposes.
10.
EXPANDBaseball. 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.
13.
in balk, inside any of the spaces in back of the balklines on a billiard table.
Also, baulk.
Origin:
before 900; Middle English; Old English balca covering, beam, ridge; cognate with Old Norse bǫlkr bar, partition, Dutch balk, Old Saxon balko, German Balken, Old Norse bjalki beam, Old English bolca plank; perhaps akin to Latin sufflāmen, Slovene blazína, Lithuanian balžíenas beam. See balcony
before 900; Middle English; Old English balca covering, beam, ridge; cognate with Old Norse bǫlkr bar, partition, Dutch balk, Old Saxon balko, German Balken, Old Norse bjalki beam, Old English bolca plank; perhaps akin to Latin sufflāmen, Slovene blazína, Lithuanian balžíenas beam. See balcony
Related forms
balk·er, noun
balk·ing·ly, adverb
un·balked, adjective
un·balk·ing, adjective
un·balk·ing·ly, adverb
Synonyms
4. check, retard, obstruct, impede, prevent.
4. check, retard, obstruct, impede, prevent.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source
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Link To balked
Example Sentences
- Jackson initially supported this sale but lately has balked.
- And its customers balked at paying for being spared the torment of supermarket shopping.
- But the construction team hasn't balked at such a tough task-they've embraced.
Etymonline
Word Origin & History
balk
O.E. balca "ridge, bank," from or influenced by O.N. balkr "ridge of land," especially between two plowed furrows, both from P.Gmc. *balkan-, *belkan- (cf. O.S. balko, Dan. bjelke, O.Fris. balka, O.H.G. balcho, Ger. Balken "beam, rafter"), from PIE *bhelg- "beam, plank" (cf. L. fulcire "to prop up, support,"
EXPANDfulcrum "bedpost;" Lith. balziena "cross-bar;" and possibly Gk. phalanx "trunk, log, line of battle"). Modern senses are figurative, either representing the balk as a hindrance or obstruction (e.g., of horses, "to stop short before an obstacle," recorded from late 15c.), or from the verb sense of "to miss or omit intentionally" (attested by late 15c.) as a lazy or incompetent plowman would in making balks. Baseball sense is first attested 1845. Related: Balky (1847).
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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