GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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Found 4 definitions

1.       
   Balk (ba̤k), n. [AS. balca beam, ridge; akin to Icel. bālkr partition, bjālki beam, OS. balko, G. balken; cf. Gael. balc ridge of earth between two furrows. Cf. Balcony, Balk, v. t., 3d Bulk.]
   1. A ridge of land left unplowed between furrows, or at the end of a field; a piece missed by the plow slipping aside.
   
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   Bad plowmen made balks of such ground. Fuller.
   
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   2. A great beam, rafter, or timber; esp., the tie-beam of a house. The loft above was called “the balks.”
   
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   Tubs hanging in the balks. Chaucer.
   
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   3. (Mil.) One of the beams connecting the successive supports of a trestle bridge or bateau bridge.
   
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   4. A hindrance or disappointment; a check.
   
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   A balk to the confidence of the bold undertaker. South.
   
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   5. A sudden and obstinate stop; a failure.
   
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   6. (Baseball) A deceptive gesture of the pitcher, as if to deliver the ball.  It is illegal and is penalized by allowing the runners on base to advance one base.
   
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   Balk line (Billiards), a line across a billiard table near one end, marking a limit within which the cue balls are placed in beginning a game; also, a line around the table, parallel to the sides, used in playing a particular game, called the balk line game.
   
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2.       
   Balk, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Balked (ba̤kt); p. pr. & vb. n. Balking.] [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.]
   
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   1. To leave or make balks in. [Obs.]  Gower.
   
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   2. To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles. [Obs.]
   
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   Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights,
   
   Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter see. Shak.
   
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   3. To omit, miss, or overlook by chance. [Obs.]
   
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   4. To miss intentionally; to avoid; to shun; to refuse; to let go by; to shirk. [Obs. or Obsolescent]
   
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   By reason of the contagion then in London, we balked the inns.  Evelyn.
   
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   Sick he is, and keeps his bed, and balks his meat. Bp. Hall.
   
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   Nor doth he any creature balk,
   
   But lays on all he meeteth. Drayton.
   
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   5. To disappoint; to frustrate; to foil; to baffle; to thwart; as, “to balk expectation”.
   
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   They shall not balk my entrance. Byron.
   
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3.       
   Balk, v. i.
   1. To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition. [Obs.]
   
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   In strifeful terms with him to balk. Spenser.
   
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   2. To stop abruptly and stand still obstinately; to jib; to stop short; to swerve; as, “the horse balks”.
   
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   ☞ This has been regarded as an Americanism, but it occurs in Spenser's  “Faërie Queene,” Book IV., 10, xxv.
   
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   Ne ever ought but of their true loves talkt,
   
   Ne ever for rebuke or blame of any balkt.
   
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   3. (Baseball) to commit a balk6; -- of a pitcher.
   
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4.       
   Balk, v. i. [Prob. from D. balken to bray, bawl.] To indicate to fishermen, by shouts or signals from shore, the direction taken by the shoals of herring.
   
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