Dictionary-Definition.com :: Balk definition

Definition of 'balk'

noun

The area on a billiard table behind the balkline; "a player with ball in hand must play from the balk" [syn: balk, baulk]

noun

Something immaterial that interferes with or delays action or progress [syn: hindrance, hinderance, deterrent, impediment, balk, baulk, check, handicap]

noun

One of several parallel sloping beams that support a roof [syn: rafter, balk, baulk]

noun

An illegal pitching motion while runners are on base

verb

Refuse to comply [syn: resist, balk, baulk, jib]

From: GCIDE

Balk \Balk\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Balked (b[add]kt); p. pr. & vb. n. Balking.] [From Balk a beam; orig. to put a balk or beam in one's way, in order to stop or hinder. Cf., for sense 2, AS. on balcan legan to lay in heaps.] [1913 Webster]
1. To leave or make balks in. [Obs.] --Gower. [1913 Webster]
2. To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights, Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter see. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
3. To omit, miss, or overlook by chance. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
4. To miss intentionally; to avoid; to shun; to refuse; to let go by; to shirk. [Obs. or Obsolescent] [1913 Webster]
By reason of the contagion then in London, we balked the inns. --Evelyn. [1913 Webster]
Sick he is, and keeps his bed, and balks his meat. --Bp. Hall. [1913 Webster]
Nor doth he any creature balk, But lays on all he meeteth. --Drayton. [1913 Webster]
5. To disappoint; to frustrate; to foil; to baffle; to thwart; as, to balk expectation. [1913 Webster]
They shall not balk my entrance. --Byron. [1913 Webster]

From: GCIDE

Balk \Balk\ (b[add]k), n. [AS. balca beam, ridge; akin to Icel. b[=a]lkr partition, bj[=a]lki beam, OS. balko, G. balken; cf. Gael. balc ridge of earth between two furrows. Cf. Balcony, Balk, v. t., 3d Bulk.]
1. A ridge of land left unplowed between furrows, or at the end of a field; a piece missed by the plow slipping aside. [1913 Webster]
Bad plowmen made balks of such ground. --Fuller. [1913 Webster]
2. A great beam, rafter, or timber; esp., the tie-beam of a house. The loft above was called "the balks." [1913 Webster]
Tubs hanging in the balks. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
3. (Mil.) One of the beams connecting the successive supports of a trestle bridge or bateau bridge. [1913 Webster]
4. A hindrance or disappointment; a check. [1913 Webster]
A balk to the confidence of the bold undertaker. --South. [1913 Webster]
5. A sudden and obstinate stop; a failure. [1913 Webster]
6. (Baseball) A deceptive gesture of the pitcher, as if to deliver the ball. It is illegal and is penalized by allowing the runners on base to advance one base. [1913 Webster]
Balk line (Billiards), a line across a billiard table near one end, marking a limit within which the cue balls are placed in beginning a game; also, a line around the table, parallel to the sides, used in playing a particular game, called the balk line game. [1913 Webster]

From: GCIDE

Balk \Balk\, v. i.
1. To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
In strifeful terms with him to balk. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
2. To stop abruptly and stand still obstinately; to jib; to stop short; to swerve; as, the horse balks. [1913 Webster]
Note: This has been regarded as an Americanism, but it occurs in Spenser's "Fa["e]rie Queene," Book IV., 10, xxv. [1913 Webster]
Ne ever ought but of their true loves talkt, Ne ever for rebuke or blame of any balkt. [1913 Webster]
3. (Baseball) to commit a balk[6]; -- of a pitcher. [PJC]

From: GCIDE

Balk \Balk\, v. i. [Prob. from D. balken to bray, bawl.] To indicate to fishermen, by shouts or signals from shore, the direction taken by the shoals of herring. [1913 Webster]