to stop, as at an obstacle, and refuse to proceed or to do something specified (usually fol. 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.
–noun
6.
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.
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.
11.
Billiards. any of the eight panels or compartments lying between the cushions of the table and the balklines.
12.
Obsolete. a miss, slip, or failure: to make a balk.
—Idiom
13.
in balk, inside any of the spaces in back of the balklines on a billiard table.
Origin: bef. 900; ME; OE balca covering, beam, ridge; c. ON bǫlkr bar, partition, D balk, OS balko, G Balken, ON bjalki beam, OE bolca plank; perh. akin to L sufflāmen, Slovene blazína, Lith balžíenas beam. See balcony
[bawk] 
