balk

See also: Balk

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English balke, from Old English balca, either from or influenced by Old Norse bálkr (“partition, ridge of land”), from Proto-Germanic *balkô. Cognate with Dutch balk (“balk”), German Balken (“balk”), Italian balcone (“balcony”).

Alternative forms

• baulk

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɔːk/, /bɔːlk/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /bɔk/
• IPA^(key): /bɑk/
• Rhymes: -ɔːk

Noun

balk (plural balks)

1. (agriculture) An uncultivated ridge formed in the open field system, caused by the action of ploughing.
   • Template:RQ:Fuller Good Thoughts
2. (archaeology) The wall of earth at the edge of an excavation.
3. Beam, crossbeam; squared timber; a tie beam of a house, stretching from wall to wall, especially when laid so as to form a loft, "the balks".
4. A hindrance or disappointment; a check.
   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:
     , "Concealment of Sin"

     a balk to the confidence of the bold undertaker

5. A sudden and obstinate stop.

   Synonym: failure

6. (obsolete) An omission.
7. (sports) A deceptive motion.

   Synonym: feint

   1. (baseball) An illegal motion by the pitcher, intended to deceive a runner.
   2. (badminton) A motion used to deceive the opponent during a serve.
8. (billiards) The area of the table lying behind the line from which the cue ball is initially shot, and from which a ball in hand must be played.
9. (snooker) The area of the table lying behind the baulk line.
10. (fishing) The rope by which fishing nets are fastened together.

Derived terms

• baulk end
• baulk line
• randle-balk

 

Translations

an unplowed strip of land

• Breton: erv (br) m
• Bulgarian: неизорана ивица земя
• Finnish: kyntämätön sarka, raja (fi)
• French: raie (fr) f
• German: Rain (de) m, Feldrain (de) m, Feldrand (de) m, Furchenrücken m
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: σφῦρα f (sphûra)

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: porca (it) f
• Manx: immyr vane f
• Polish: miedza (pl) f
• Romanian: hat (ro) n, hotar (ro) n
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: mjaza f

beam

• Bulgarian: греда (bg) (greda)
• Dutch: balk (nl) m
• Finnish: palkki (fi), parru (fi)
• German: Balken (de) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian: bjelke (no) m
• Polish: bal (pl) m, dyl (pl) m, kloc (pl) m
• Romanian: grindă (ro) f, lonjeron (ro) n
• Russian: ба́лка (ru) f (bálka)
• Spanish: viga (es)

hindrance

• Bulgarian: , спънка (bg) (spǎnka), пречка (bg) (prečka)
• Finnish: este (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Romanian: obstacol (ro) n, piedică (ro) f

(sports) deceptive motion; feint

• Bulgarian: финт (fint), лъжливо движение
• Finnish: harhautus (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Romanian: fentă (ro) f

Verb

balk (third-person singular simple present balks, present participle balking, simple past and past participle balked)

1. (archaic) To pass over or by.
2. To omit, miss, or overlook by chance.

   Synonyms: miss, overlook

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

3. (obsolete) To miss intentionally; to avoid.

   Synonyms: avoid, shun, refuse, shirk

   • 1641 November 22 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 12 November 1641]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC:

     By reason of the contagion then in London, we balked the nns.

   • 1612–1626, [Joseph Hall], “(please specify the page)”, in [Contemplations vpon the Principall Passages of the Holy Storie], volumes (please specify |volume=II, V, or VI), London, →OCLC:

     Sick he is, and keeps his bed, and balks his meat.

   • 1627, Michael Drayton, Nymphidia

     Nor doth he any creature balk, / But lays on all he meeteth.

4. To stop, check, block.
   • 1932, Aldous Huxley, Brave new world :

     Balked for the second time, the passion of his grief had found another outlet, was transformed into a passion of agonized rage.

5. To stop short and refuse to go on.

   The horse balked.

   • 1995, Temple Grandin, Thinking in Pictures, page 6:

     I’ve seen cattle that were handled in two identical facilities easily walk through one and balk in the other.

6. To refuse suddenly.
   • 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter XI, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC:

     Real affection, it seemed, he could not have for me; it had been only fitful passion: that was balked; he would want me no more

7. To disappoint; to frustrate.

   Synonyms: frustrate, foil, baffle, thwart

   to balk expectation

   • Template:RQ:Byron The Two Foscari

     They shall not balk my entrance.

8. To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 12:

     Her list in strifull termes with him to balke

9. To leave or make balks in.
   • c. 1386–1390, John Gower, edited by Reinhold Pauli, Confessio Amantis of John Gower: Edited and Collated with the Best Manuscripts, volumes (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Bell and Daldy […], published 1857, →OCLC:

     But so well halt no man the plough,
     That he ne balketh other while

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

10. To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles.
    • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

      Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights, / Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter see.

11. (sports, intransitive) To make a deceptive motion to deceive another player.
    • 2013, Aaron Wisewell, The Baseball Coach

      The best advice you can receive regarding balking is to always maintain poise and composure on the mound.

Derived terms

• balked landing

Translations

to stop, check, block

• Bulgarian: преча (bg) (preča), спъвам (bg) (spǎvam), затруднявам (bg) (zatrudnjavam)
• Finnish: estää (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: verhindern (de), stoppen (de), blockieren (de), behindern (de), vereiteln (de), Einhalt gebieten, durchkreuzen
• Italian: ostacolare (it)

to stop short and refuse to go on

• Bulgarian: запирам се (zapiram se)
• Finnish: seisahtua (fi), tehdä tenä
• French: regimber (fr)
• German: verweigern (de), stoppen (de), scheuen (de), stocken (de)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: tirarsi indietro
• Occitan: reguitnar (oc)
• Serbo-Croatian: ustuknuti (sh)

to refuse suddenly

• Bulgarian: пропускам (bg) (propuskam), отказвам (bg) (otkazvam)
• Finnish: tehdä tenä, kieltäytyä (fi)
• French: regimber (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: sich sperren, zurückweisen (de)
• Hungarian: visszahőköl (hu)
• Serbo-Croatian: ustuknuti (sh)

Etymology 2

Probably from Dutch balken (“to bray, bawl”).

Verb

balk (third-person singular simple present balks, present participle balking, simple past and past participle balked)

1. To indicate to fishermen, by shouts or signals from shore, the direction taken by the shoals of herring.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “balk”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• Blak, blak

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɑlk/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: balk
• Rhymes: -ɑlk

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch balke, from Old Dutch *balco, from Proto-West Germanic *balkō, from Proto-Germanic *balkô.

Noun

balk m (plural balken, diminutive balkje n)

1. A beam, solid support.
2. (mathematics) A cuboid.
3. A section, icon et cetera in such rectangular shape.

Derived terms

• balkenbrij
• dakbalk
• draagbalk
• evenwichtsbalk
• staartbalk
• stootbalk

- beam-shaped

• notenbalk
• taakbalk
• zoekbalk

Related terms

• balkon

Descendants

• Afrikaans: balk
• Negerhollands: balk
• → Caribbean Javanese: baleg, balok
• → Javanese: ꦧꦭꦺꦴꦏ꧀ (balok)
  • → Indonesian: balok
• → Malay: balak
  • Indonesian: balak
• → Papiamentu: balki (from the diminutive)
• → Saramaccan: báíki
• → Sranan Tongo: barki, balk
  • → Caribbean Hindustani: barki

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

balk

1. (deprecated template usage) first-person singular present indicative of balken
2. (deprecated template usage) imperative of balken

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Swedish

Etymology

From Old Swedish balker, from Old Norse bialki, bǫlkr, from Proto-Germanic *balkuz, from *balkô (“beam, plank”).

Noun

balk c

1. a wooden or metal beam
2. (heraldry) a bend (diagonal band)
3. (law) code (major section of legislation)

   brottsbalk

   criminal code

Declension

Declension of balk
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	balk	balken	balker	balkerna
Genitive	balks	balkens	balkers	balkernas

Synonyms

• bjälke

Derived terms

• tvärbalk
• ändbalk
• ändtvärbalk