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''balk'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260813235252-00-⌔

balk - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

balk (plural balks)

  • (agriculture) An uncultivated ridge formed in the open field system, caused by the action of ploughing.
    • ✤ How fruitfull are the ſeeming Barren places of Scripture. Bad Plow-men, which make Balkes of ſuch Ground.1
  • (archaeology) The wall of earth at the edge of an excavation.
  • 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”.
  • A hindrance or disappointment; a check.
    • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume, London:, “Concealment of Sin”
      • ✤ a balk to the confidence of the bold undertaker
  • A sudden and obstinate stop.
    • ✤ Synonym: failure
  • (obsolete) An omission.
  • (sports) A deceptive motion.
    • ✤ Synonym: feint
    • (baseball) An illegal motion by the pitcher, intended to deceive a runner.
    • (badminton) A motion used to deceive the opponent during a serve.
  • (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.

Verb

balk (third-person singular simple present balks, present participle balking, simple past and past participle balked)

  • To be unwilling to do something; to refuse to proceed or do or allow something, either in general or only temporarily.
    • ✤ * balked at paying a day’s wages for a pencil*; *he said he would buy her one, but when he saw the price, he balked *
    • ✤ Carla balked for a moment, but when the badge and identification was produced, she acquiesced immediately. “Of course, Director, what can I do for you?”2
  • (especially of a horse, mule, etc) To stop short and refuse to go on or do something (such as jump).
    • ✤ Synonym: jib
    • ✤ The horse balked.
    • ✤ “Her horse balked at the jump and threw her,” said Michael.3
    • ✤ I’ve seen cattle that were handled in two identical facilities easily walk through one and balk in the other.4
  • To move fitfully, stopping frequently.
    • ✤ The horses balked up the canyon,/But we made it with half a load./Got to the top with panniers./Went back for the bedding stowed.5
    • ✤ […] balked up the hills, then careened and slid on the downside, threatening to overturn.6
    • ✤ […] thin road, gunning madly past the old rusty trucks balking up the mountain to Boulem while Badra drifted in and out of consciousness in the back.7
  • To leave or make a balk or balks (ridges) in; to leave a ridge in by leaving partly unploughed.
    • ✤ But so well halt no man the plough,/That he ne balketh other while (please add an English translation of this quotation)]8
    • ✤ […] balking up the field.9
    • ✤ […] balking up the rows and running the water down from the balks;10
  • ✤ (please add an English translation of this quotation)]
  • To stop, check, block (by or as if by an obstacle); to hinder, impede, thwart.
    • ✤ My Sport is always balkt, or cut short — I stumble over the Game me I would pursue —11
    • ✤ […] the sturdy cavalier was not to be balked in his purpose; […]12
    • ✤ * Balked for the second time, the passion of his grief had found another outlet, was transformed into a passion of agonized rage.*13
    • ✤ an incipient accretion of rotundity recently balked his entrance to a boiler wherein his expert scrutiny was imperatively demanded,14
    • ✤ […] had neither been balked nor been frightened by this overwhelming man.15
  • (possibly obsolete) To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles.
    • ✤ Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights,/Balk’d in their own blood did Sir Walter see.16
  • (possibly obsolete) To pass over or by (either by chance or intentionally); to avoid in passing.
    • ✤ Jericho was in his way from Galilee to Jerusalem: he baulks it not, though it were outwardly cursed.17
    • ✤ I hope you will not balk Totteridge, if I am here.18
    • ✤ Going to Lord Carendon… baulking the Secretary.19
    • (possibly obsolete) To omit, miss, or overlook by chance, error, or inadvertance.
      • ✤ Synonyms: miss, overlook
      • ✤ […] you cannot baulk your Road without the hazard of drowning20
    • (possibly obsolete) To miss intentionally; to avoid, ignore, or shun.
      • ✤ Synonyms: avoid, shun, refuse, shirk
      • ✤ Sick he is, and keeps his bed, and balks his meat.21
      • ✤ Nor doth he any creature balk,/But lays on all he meeteth.22
      • ✤ By reason of the contagion then in London, we balked the inns.23
      • ✤ I’le call ye to Accompt, and if ye bauke me, then/I ranſake ye out, and make ye underſtand/The ſharp-nail’d language of Quiſquilla’s hand.24
      • ✤ Thou must not balke the way of Religion25
      • ✤ The spying of motes in our brother’s eye, and baulking of beams in our own.26
      • ✤ I may not balk two pregnant testimonies of the Fathers27
  • (possibly obsolete) To refuse or fail to use (something), either through error or intentionally.
    • (possibly obsolete) To refuse (something).
      • ✤ And balke your bed for shame.28
      • ✤ A bait you cannot balk Sir.29
      • ✤ If the stalk grow big, cattell wil balk it.30
      • ✤ I never… balked an invitation31
      • ✤ such an age as ours balks no expense32
    • (possibly obsolete) To let (something) slip; to fail to use or seize or keep (something).
      • ✤ to balk an opportunity
      • ✤ This was look’d for at your hand, and this as baulkt.33
      • ✤ If I balk’d this opportunity.34
  • To disappoint, frustrate, or check.
    • ✤ Synonyms: frustrate, foil, baffle, thwart
    • ✤ to balk expectation
    • ✤ Nor doth it balk my charity, to find Th’ Egyptian bishop of another mind:35
    • ✤ […] balk yourself of the pleasure of bullying and making her unhappy.36
    • ✤ Well,/I know that none who enter there return/As they have enter’d—many never; but/They shall not balk my entrance.37
  • (possibly obsolete) To quibble or bandy words with; engage in opposing, contradicting, or arguing with.
    • ✤ *Her list in strifull termes with him to balke *38
    • ✤ They do not divide and baulk with God.39
  • (intransitive, sports) To make a balk, a deceptive motion to deceive another player.
    • ✤ The best advice you can receive regarding balking is to always maintain poise and composure on the mound.40

Noun

balk (plural balks)

  • (UK dialectal) A small brass ornament fixed at the top of a wand.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /bɔːk/, /bɔːlk/
  • (General American) IPA: /bɔk/, /bɔlk/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA: /bɑk/
  • Rhymes: -ɔːk

Etymology 1

From Middle English balke, from Old English balca, either from or influenced by Old Norse bálkr (“partition, ridge of land”),41 from Proto-Germanic ﹡balkô. Cognate with Dutch balk (“balk”), German Balken (“balk”), Italian balcone (“balcony”).

Etymology 2

From Middle English balok, ballok (“knob”), from Old English bealluc (“testicle”, literally “little ball”). Doublet of ballock and bollocks.

Printed 2026-08-13.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 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: ↩

  2. 2004, Derek Hart, Tidal Trap, page 114: ↩

  3. 1974, Sharon Salvato, Briarcliff Manor: A Novel, page 107: ↩

  4. 1995, Temple Grandin, Thinking in Pictures, page 6: ↩

  5. 1915, L. J. Dickinson, John O’ Dreams, page 80: ↩

  6. 1993, Susan C. Feldhake, Seasons of the Heart, page 107: ↩

  7. 2006, Bret Lott, The Best Christian Short Stories, volume 1, page 127: ↩

  8. [c. 1386–1390, John Gower, edited by Reinhold Pauli, Confessio Amantis of John Gower: Edited and Collated with the Best Manuscripts, volume (in Middle English), London: Bell and Daldy […], published 1857, →OCLC: ↩

  9. 1906, Primrose McConnell, The Diary of a Working Farmer, page 151: ↩

  10. 1935, Scientific Horticulture: Journal of the Horticultural, page 89: ↩

  11. 1733, William Congreve, The Old Batchelor: A Comedy, page 55: ↩

  12. 1867 [1855?], William Hickling Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, page 48: ↩

  13. 1932, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World ‎, London: Chatto & Windus: ↩

  14. 1915 May, The National Engineer, volume 19, page 299: ↩

  15. 1929, Francis Hackett, Henry the Eighth, page 211: ↩

  16. 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]: ↩

  17. 1612, Joseph Hall, Contempl. N. T.: ↩

  18. 1664, Lady R. Russell, Letters: ↩

  19. 1773, “Exam.”, in North: ↩

  20. 1677, Owen Feltham, Resolves: Divine, Moral, Political. The tenth impression., page 46: ↩

  21. 1612–1634, [Joseph Hall], “”, in [Contemplations vpon the Principall Passages of the Holy Storie], volume, London, →OCLC: ↩

  22. 1627, Michaell [i.e., Michael] Drayton, “Nimphidia. The Court of Fayrie.”, in The Battaile of Agincourt. […], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for William Lee, […], →OCLC: ↩

  23. 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: ↩

  24. a. 1645 (date written), Fra[ncis] Quarles, The Virgin Widow. A Comedie, London: […] R[ichard] Royston, […], published 1649, →OCLC, Act II, page 33: ↩

  25. 1632, Effect. Faith, Preston: ↩

  26. 1696, Robert Sanderson, Sermons: ↩

  27. 1808 [original 1640?] Joseph Hall, Works: Polemical works, page 526: ↩

  28. 1587, Tuberv., Trag. T. (1837), page 230: ↩

  29. 1619, Fletcher, M. Thomas: ↩

  30. 1649, Blith, Eng. Improv. Impr.: ↩

  31. 1784, Johnson, Boswell: ↩

  32. 1870 [?], William Cowper, The Poetical Works of William Cowper, page 90: ↩

  33. 1602, Shakspeare, Twelfth Night: ↩

  34. 1697, Dryden, Virg. Georg.: ↩

  35. 1777 [1692?], John Dryden, Original Poems, and Translations,: In Two Volumes [Rel. Laici?], page 223: ↩

  36. 1891 [1854?], William Makepeace Thackeray, The Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray, page 365: ↩

  37. 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: ↩

  38. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 12: ↩

  39. 1653, Manton, Works, IV 227: ↩

  40. 2013, Aaron Wisewell, The Baseball Coach: ↩

  41. Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “balk”, in Online Etymology Dictionary. ↩