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baulk

[bawk]

Origin

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

balk.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To baulk

Collins

World English Dictionary

balk or baulk (bɔːk, bɔːlk, bɔːk, bɔːlk)

—vb (usually foll by at) (foll by at)
1.	to stop short, esp suddenly or unexpectedly; jib: the horse balked at the jump
2.	to turn away abruptly; recoil: he balked at the idea of murder
3.	(tr) to thwart, check, disappoint, or foil: he was balked in his plans
4.	(tr) to avoid deliberately: he balked the question
5.	(tr) to miss unintentionally

—n
6.	a roughly squared heavy timber beam
7.	a timber tie beam of a roof
8.	an unploughed ridge to prevent soil erosion or mark a division on common land
9.	an obstacle; hindrance; disappointment
10.	baseball an illegal motion by a pitcher towards the plate or towards the base when there are runners on base, esp without delivering the ball

[Old English balca; related to Old Norse bálkr partition, Old High German balco beam]

baulk or baulk

—vb

—n

[Old English balca; related to Old Norse bálkr partition, Old High German balco beam]

'balker or baulk

—n

'baulker or baulk

—n

baulk (bɔːk, (usually for sense 1) bɔːlk)

—n
1.	billiards Also (US): balk
	a. the space, usually 29 inches deep, between the baulk line and the bottom cushion
	b. (in baulk-line games) one of the spaces between the cushions and the baulk lines
	c. in baulk inside one of these spaces
2.	archaeol a strip of earth left between excavation trenches for the study of the complete stratigraphy of a site
3.	croquet either of two lines (A baulk and B baulk) at diagonally opposite ends of the court, from which the ball is struck into play

—vb, —n
4.	a variant spelling of balk

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

baulk

alt. spelling of balk, especially in billiards, in reference to a bad shot.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Matching Quote

"I'm not the man to baulk at a low smell,
I'm not the man to insist on asphodel.
This sounds like a He-fellow, don't you think?
It sounds like that. I belch, I bawl, I drink."

-Dame Edith Sitwell

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