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

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bɔːk/, /bɔːlk/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /bɔk/
• (cot–caught merger, Inland Northern American) 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.
   • 1645, Thomas Fuller, Good Thoughts in Bad Times

     Bad ploughmen, which made balks of such ground.

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.
   • 1698, Robert South, Twelve Sermons upon Several Subjects and Occasions:

     , "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 line
• baulk end

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, Furchenrücken m
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: σφῦρα f (sphûra)

• Italian: porca (it) f
• Manx: immyr vane 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

• Norwegian: bjelke (no) 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)

• Romanian: obstacol (ro) n, piedică (ro) f

(sports) deceptive motion; feint

• Bulgarian: финт (fint), лъжливо движение
• Finnish: harhautus (fi)

• 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, John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 12 November 1641 (Julian calendar)]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […] , volume I, 2nd edition, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1819, OCLC 976971842:

     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], volume (please specify |volume=II, V, or VI), London, OCLC 54134621:

     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.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

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 11, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], OCLC 3163777:

     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

   • 1821, Lord Byron, The Two Foscari

     They shall not balk my entrance.

8. To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book III, canto II, stanza 12:

     Her list in strifull termes with him to balke

9. To leave or make balks in.
   • c. 1386–1390, John Gower, Reinhold Pauli, editor, Confessio Amantis of John Gower: Edited and Collated with the Best Manuscripts, volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Bell and Daldy […], published 1857, OCLC 827099568:

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

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

10. To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles.
    • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i]:

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

Translations

to stop, check, block

• Bulgarian: преча (bg) (preča), спъвам (bg) (spǎvam), затруднявам (bg) (zatrudnjavam)
• Finnish: estää (fi)

• 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)

• 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)

• 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, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

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-Germanic *balkô.

Noun

balk m (plural balken, diminutive balkje n)

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

Derived terms

• balkenbrij
• draagbalk
• staartbalk
• stootbalk

- beam-shaped

• notenbalk
• taakbalk
• zoekbalk

Related terms

• balkon

Descendants

• Afrikaans: balk

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

balk

1. first-person singular present indicative of balken
2. imperative of balken

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Swedish

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

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