bilk

Uncertain; perhaps a variant form of balk.

• IPA^(key): /bɪlk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  Rhymes: -ɪlk

bilk (plural bilks)

1. (cribbage) The spoiling of someone's score in the crib.
2. (obsolete) A deception, a hoax.
3. (obsolete) A cheat or swindler.

bilk (third-person singular simple present bilks, present participle bilking, simple past and past participle bilked)

1. (transitive) To spoil the score of (someone) in cribbage.
2. (transitive) To do someone out of their due; to deceive or defraud, to cheat (someone).

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:deceive

   • 2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin, published 2012, page 615:

     They also perpetrate nonviolent crimes like bilking elderly couples out of their life savings and running a business with ruthless disregard for the welfare of the workforce or stakeholders.

   • 2021 November 2, Maria Cramer, “Texas Radio Host Who Bilked Listeners Out of Millions Is Sentenced to Life”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     Mr. Gallagher, who went by the nickname Doc, pleaded guilty on Aug. 31 to several charges connected to what prosecutors described as a Ponzi scheme that lasted nearly 10 years and bilked older people of their retirement savings.

3. (intransitive, UK) To steal fuel from a self-service filling station by driving away without paying after filling the fuel tank or other container; to commit a drive-off.
4. (transitive, archaic) To evade, elude.

• blik