balk

The definition of balk is to stop or hold back from doing something.

(verb)

An example of something at which someone might balk is cleaning up a mess that he did not make.
An example of an animal that may balk is a mule.

Balk is defined as to create a hindrance or a barrier.

(verb)

An example of something that may balk your chances to finish college is a refusal by a lender to provide financial aid.

See balk in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

a ridge of unplowed land between furrows
a roughly hewn piece of timber
a beam used in construction
something that obstructs or thwarts; check, hindrance, disappointment, etc.
Obsolete a blunder; error
Baseball an illegal motion by the pitcher, such as an uncompleted motion to throw to a base, while one foot is on the rubber: it entitles each base runner to advance one base
Billiards any of the outer spaces between the cushions and the balkline

Origin: ME balke < OE balca, a bank, ridge < IE *bhelg- (extended stem of *bhel-, a beam) > Ger balken, beam, Gr phalanx, L fulcrum

transitive verb

intransitive verb

Related Forms:

See balk in American Heritage Dictionary 4

verb balked, balk·ing, balks

verb, intransitive

To stop short and refuse to go on: The horse balked at the jump.
To refuse obstinately or abruptly: She balked at the very idea of compromise.
a. Sports To make an incomplete or misleading motion.
b. Baseball To make an illegal motion before pitching, allowing one or more base runners to advance one base.

verb, transitive

noun

A hindrance, check, or defeat.
Sports An incomplete or misleading motion, especially an illegal move made by a baseball pitcher.
Games One of the spaces between the cushion and the balk line on a billiard table.
a. An unplowed strip of land.
b. A ridge between furrows.
A wooden beam or rafter.

Origin:

Origin: Middle English balken, to plow up in ridges

Origin: , from balk, ridge

Origin: , from Old English balca

Origin: and from Old Norse balkr, beam

Related Forms: