balk

From Middle English balke, Old English balca, either from or influenced by Old Norse bálkr (“partition, ridge of land”),[1] from Proto-Germanic *balkô. Cognate with Dutch balk (“balk”), German Balken (“balk”), Italian balcone (“balcony”).

• baulk

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bɔːk/, /bɔːlk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /bɔk/
• (cot–caught merger, Northern Cities Vowel Shift) IPA^(key): /bɑk/
• Rhymes: -ɔːk

balk (plural balks)

1. An uncultivated ridge formed in the open field system, caused by the action of ploughing.
   • Fuller

     Bad ploughmen made balks of such ground.

2. (archaeology) The wall of earth at the edge of an excavation.
3. Beam, crossbeam.
4. A hindrance or disappointment; a check.
   • South

     a balk to the confidence of the bold undertaker

5. A sudden and obstinate stop; a failure.
6. (sports) A deceptive motion; a feint.
   1. (baseball) An illegal motion by the pitcher, intended to deceive a runner.
   2. (badminton) A motion used to deceive the opponent during a serve.
7. (billiards) The area of the table lying behind the line from which the cue ball is initially shot, and from which a ball in hand must be played.
8. (snooker) The area of the table lying behind the baulk line.
9. (fishing) The rope by which fishing nets are fastened together.

• baulk line
• baulk end

balk (third-person singular simple present balks, present participle balking, simple past and past participle balked)

1. (archaic) To pass over or by.
2. To omit, miss, or overlook by chance.
3. (obsolete) To miss intentionally; to avoid; to shun; to refuse; to let go by; to shirk.
   • Evelyn

     By reason of the contagion then in London, we balked the nns.

   • Bishop Hall

     Sick he is, and keeps his bed, and balks his meat.

   • Drayton

     Nor doth he any creature balk, / But lays on all he meeteth.

4. To stop, check, block.
5. To stop short and refuse to go on.

   The horse balked.

6. To refuse suddenly.
   • Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre:

     Real affection, it seemed, he could not have for me; it had only been fitful passion: that was balked; he would want me no more.

7. To disappoint; to frustrate; to foil; to baffle; to thwart.

   to balk expectation

   • Byron

     They shall not balk my entrance.

8. To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition.
   • Spenser

     In strifeful terms with him to balk.

9. To leave or make balks in.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Gower to this entry?)

10. To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles.
    • Shakespeare

      Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights, / Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter see.

Probably from Dutch balken (“to bray, bawl”).

balk (third-person singular simple present balks, present participle balking, simple past and past participle balked)

1. To indicate to fishermen, by shouts or signals from shore, the direction taken by the shoals of herring.

• IPA^(key): /bɑlk/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: balk
• Rhymes: -ɑlk

From Middle Dutch balke, from Old Dutch *balco, from Proto-Germanic *balkô.

balk m (plural balken, diminutive balkje n)

1. beam, support
2. (mathematics) cuboid

• balkenbrij
• draagbalk
• notenbalk
• staartbalk
• taakbalk
• zoekbalk

• balkon

• Afrikaans: balk

See the etymology of the main entry.

balk

1. first-person singular present indicative of balken
2. imperative of balken

balk c

1. a wooden beam
2. (heraldry) a bend (diagonal band)

• bjälke