balk
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English balke, 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”).
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /bɔːk/, /bɔːlk/
- (General American) IPA(key): /bɔk/
- (cot–caught merger, Northern Cities Vowel Shift) IPA(key): /bɑk/
- Rhymes: -ɔːk
Noun
balk (plural balks)
- An uncultivated ridge formed in the open field system, caused by the action of ploughing.
- Fuller
- Bad ploughmen made balks of such ground.
- Fuller
- (archaeology) The wall of earth at the edge of an excavation.
- Beam, crossbeam.
- A hindrance or disappointment; a check.
- South
- a balk to the confidence of the bold undertaker
- South
- A sudden and obstinate stop; a failure.
- (sports) A deceptive motion; a feint.
- (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.
- (snooker) The area of the table lying behind the baulk line.
- (fishing) The rope by which fishing nets are fastened together.
Derived terms
Translations
Verb
balk (third-person singular simple present balks, present participle balking, simple past and past participle balked)
- (archaic) To pass over or by.
- To omit, miss, or overlook by chance.
- (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.
- Evelyn
- To stop, check, block.
- To stop short and refuse to go on.
- The horse balked.
- To refuse suddenly.
- Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre:
- Real affection, it seemed, he could not have for me; it had only been fitful passion: that was balked; he would want me no more.
- Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre:
- To disappoint; to frustrate; to foil; to baffle; to thwart.
- to balk expectation
- Byron
- They shall not balk my entrance.
- To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition.
- Spenser
- In strifeful terms with him to balk.
- Spenser
- To leave or make balks in.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Gower to this entry?)
- 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.
- Shakespeare
Translations
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Verb
balk (third-person singular simple present balks, present participle balking, simple past and past participle balked)
- 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.
(See the entry for balk in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)
Dutch
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bɑlk/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: balk
- Rhymes: -ɑlk
Etymology 1
From Middle Dutch balke, from Old Dutch *balco, from Proto-Germanic *balkô.
Related terms
Descendants
- Afrikaans: balk
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the main entry.
Swedish
Declension
Declension of balk | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | |||
Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |
Nominative | balk | balken | balker | balkerna |
Genitive | balks | balkens | balkers | balkernas |