GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English
last match results
Found 4 definitions
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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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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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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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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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