balk

noun

1. a ridge of unplowed land between furrows
2. a roughly hewn piece of timber
3. a beam used in construction
4. something that obstructs or thwarts; check, hindrance, disappointment, etc.
5. Obsolete a blunder; error
6. 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
7. Billiards any of the outer spaces between the cushions and the balkline

transitive verb

1. Obsolete to make balks in (land)
2. to obstruct or thwart; foil
3. Archaic to miss or let slip by
4. Baseball to force (a base runner to score from third base) by committing a balk

intransitive verb

1. to stop and obstinately refuse to move or act
2. to hesitate or recoil (at)
3. to make a balk in baseball