balk

English

Etymology 1

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

Alternative forms

• baulk

Pronunciation

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

  Rhymes: -ɔːk

• (US) IPA^(key): /bɔ(ː)k/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /bɑ(ː)k/

Noun

balk (plural balks)

1. ridge, an unplowed strip of land
   • Fuller

     Bad ploughmen made balks of such ground.

2. beam, crossbeam
3. A hindrance or disappointment; a check.
   • South

     a balk to the confidence of the bold undertaker

4. A sudden and obstinate stop; a failure.
5. (sports) deceptive motion; feint
   1. (baseball) an illegal motion by the pitcher, intended to deceive a runner
   2. (badminton) motion used to deceive an opponent during a serve

Translations

an unplowed strip of land

• Bulgarian: неизорана ивица земя
• Manx: immyr vane f

• Romanian: hat (ro) n, hotar (ro) n

beam

• Bulgarian: греда (bg) (greda)
• German: Balken (de) m
• Norwegian: bjelke (no) m

• Romanian: grindă (ro) f, lonjeron (ro) n
• Russian: балка (ru) f (bálka)

hindrance

• Bulgarian: , спънка (bg) (spǎnka), пречка (bg) (prečka)

• Romanian: obstacol n, piedică f

(sports) deceptive motion; feint

• Bulgarian: финт (fint), лъжливо движение

• 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.
3. (obsolete) To miss intentionally; to avoid; to shun; to refuse; to let go by; to shirk.
   • Evelyn

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

   • Bishop Hall

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

   • Drayton

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

4. To stop, check, block.
5. To stop short and refuse to go on.

   The horse balked.

6. To refuse suddenly.
7. To disappoint; to frustrate; to foil; to baffle; to thwart.

   to balk expectation

   • Byron

     They shall not balk my entrance.

8. To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition.
   • Spenser

     In strifeful terms with him to balk.

9. To leave or make balks in.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Gower to this entry?)

10. To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles.
    • Shakespeare

      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)

• Italian: ostacolare (it)

to stop short and refuse to go on

• Bulgarian: запирам се (zapiram se)
• French: regimber (fr)

• Italian: tirarsi indietro
• Serbo-Croatian: ustuknuti

to refuse suddenly

• Bulgarian: пропускам (bg) (propuskam), отказвам (bg) (otkazvam)
• French: regimber (fr)

• Serbo-Croatian: ustuknuti

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.

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɑlk

Etymology 1

From Old Dutch *balko, from Proto-Germanic *balkô.

Noun

balk m (plural balken, diminutive balkje n)

1. beam, support
2. (mathematics) cuboid

Etymology 2

Verb

balk

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