'Balking' definitions:

Definition of 'balking'

adjective

Stopping short and refusing to go on; "a balking"; "a balky mule"; "a balky customer" [syn: balking, balky]

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]