baulk definition | Dictionary.com

baulk

[bawk]

Use baulk in a Sentence

–verb (used without object), verb (used with object), noun

balk.

balk

[bawk]

–verb (used without object)

1.	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.

Also, baulk.

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

Related forms:

balker, noun

balk⋅ing⋅ly, adverb

Synonyms:
4. check, retard, obstruct, impede, prevent.

Link To baulk

baulk (bôk)

v. & n. Chiefly British
Variant of balk.

Search another word or see baulk on Thesaurus | Reference

About · Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Advertise with Us · Link to Us · NASCAR® · Contact Us