balk

From Middle English balke, from Old English balca, either from or influenced by Old Norse bálkr (“partition, ridge of land”),[1] from Proto-Germanic *balkô. Cognate with Dutch balk (“balk”), German Balken (“balk”), Italian balcone (“balcony”).

• baulk

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

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (cot–caught merger, Inland Northern American) IPA^(key): /bɑk/
• Rhymes: -ɔːk

balk (plural balks)

1. (agriculture) An uncultivated ridge formed in the open field system, caused by the action of ploughing.
   • 1647, Tho[mas] Fuller, “Scripture Observations”, in Good Thoughts in Worse Times. […], London: […] W. W. for John Williams […], →OCLC, section XVI (Text improved), page 89:

     How fruitfull are the ſeeming Barren places of Scripture. Bad Plow-men, which make Balkes 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.
   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727, →OCLC:
     , "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.

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; to hinder, impede.
   • 1932, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World‎, London: Chatto & Windus:

     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 II, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 303:

     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, an Historical Tragedy”, in Sardanapalus, a Tragedy; The Two Foscari, a Tragedy; Cain, a Mystery, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 195:

     Well, / I know that none who enter there return / As they have enter'd—many never; but / 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.

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

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.

• Blak, blak

• IPA^(key): /bɑlk/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: balk
• Rhymes: -ɑlk
• Homophone: Balk

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

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.

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

- beam-shaped

• notenbalk
• schuifbalk
• taakbalk
• zoekbalk

• balkon

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

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

balk

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

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

balk c

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

   brottsbalk

   criminal code

4. (slang, vulgar) penis

• bjälke

• balk in Svenska Akademiens ordböcker
• balk in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)