balk Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the area on a billiard table behind the balkline
    baulk.
    • a player with ball in hand must play from the balk
  2. noun something immaterial that interferes with or delays action or progress
    handicap; baulk; check; impediment; hindrance; deterrent; hinderance.
  3. noun one of several parallel sloping beams that support a roof
    rafter; baulk.
  4. noun an illegal pitching motion while runners are on base
  5. verb refuse to comply
    resist; jib; baulk.

WordNet

Balk noun
Etymology
AS. balca beam, ridge; akin to Icel. balkr partition, bjalki beam, OS. balko, G. balken; cf. Gael. balc ridge of earth between two furrows. Cf. Balcony, Balk, v. i., 3d Bulk.
Definitions
  1. A ridge of land left unplowed between furrows, or at the end of a field; a piece missed by the plow slipping aside.
    Bad plowmen made balks of such ground. Fuller.
  2. A great beam, rafter, or timber; esp., the tie-beam of a house. The loft above was called "the balks."
    Tubs hanging in the balks. Chaucer.
  3. (Mil.) One of the beams connecting the successive supports of a trestle bridge or bateau bridge.
  4. A hindrance or disappointment; a check.
    A balk to the confidence of the bold undertaker. South.
  5. A sudden and obstinate stop; a failure.
  6. (Baseball) A deceptive gesture of the pitcher, as if to deliver the ball.
Balk transitive verb
Etymology
From Balk a beam; orig. to put a balk or beam in one's way, in order to stop or hinder. Cf., for sense 2, AS. on balcan legan to lay in heaps.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Balked (); present participle & verbal noun Balking
Definitions
  1. To leave or make balks in. Obs. Gower.
  2. To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles. Obs.
    Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights, Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter see. Shak.
  3. To omit, miss, or overlook by chance. Obs.
  4. To miss intentionally; to avoid; to shun; to refuse; to let go by; to shirk. Obs. or Obsolescent
    By reason of the contagion then in London, we balked the nns. Evelyn.
    Sick he is, and keeps his bed, and balks his meat. Bp. Hall.
    Nor doth he any creature balk, But lays on all he meeteth. Drayton.
  5. To disappoint; to frustrate; to foil; to baffle; to hwart; as, to balk expectation.
    They shall not balk my entrance. Byron.
Balk intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition. Obs.
    In strifeful terms with him to balk. Spenser.
  2. To stop abruptly and stand still obstinately; to jib; to stop short; to swerve; as, the horse balks. ✍ This has been regarded as an Americanism, but it occurs in Spenser's "Faërie Queene," Book IV., 10, xxv.
    Ne ever ought but of their true loves talkt, Ne ever for rebuke or blame of any balkt.
Balk intransitive verb
Etymology
Prob. from D. balken to bray, bawl.
Definitions
  1. To indicate to fishermen, by shouts or signals from shore, the direction taken by the shoals of herring.

Webster 1913