• balk/baulk

     /bɔk/ Show Spelled[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.

    –noun6.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.

    —Idiom13.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 formsbalker, noun
    balk·ing·ly, adverb
    un·balked, adjective
    un·balk·ing, adjective
    un·balk·ing·ly, adverb

    —Synonyms

    1. check, retard, obstruct, impede, prevent.
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