Definition of "balk"

balk¹

/bɔːk/

noun
plural balks
1. (agriculture) An uncultivated ridge formed in the open field system, caused by the action of ploughing.
  Quotations
  Bad ploughmen, which made balks of such ground.
  1645, Thomas Fuller, Good Thoughts in Bad Times
2. (archaeology) The wall of earth at the edge of an excavation.
3. 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".
4. A hindrance or disappointment; a check.
  Quotations
  a balk to the confidence of the bold undertaker
  1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727
5. A sudden and obstinate stop.
6. (obsolete) An omission.
7. (sports) A deceptive motion.
  1. (baseball) An illegal motion by the pitcher, intended to deceive a runner.
  2. (badminton) A motion used to deceive the opponent during a serve.
8. (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.
9. (snooker) The area of the table lying behind the baulk line.
10. (fishing) The rope by which fishing nets are fastened together.
verb
third-person singular simple present balks, present participle balking, simple past and past participle balked
1. (archaic) To pass over or by.
2. To omit, miss, or overlook by chance.
3. (obsolete) To miss intentionally; to avoid.
  Quotations
  By reason of the contagion then in London, we balked the nns.
  1641 November 22 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “”, 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
  Sick he is, and keeps his bed, and balks his meat.
  1612–1626, [Joseph Hall], “(please specify the page)”, in [Contemplations vpon the Principall Passages of the Holy Storie], volumes (please specify |volume=II, V, or VI), London
  Nor doth he any creature balk, / But lays on all he meeteth.
  1627, Michael Drayton, Nymphidia
4. To stop, check, block.
  Quotations
  Balked for the second time, the passion of his grief had found another outlet, was transformed into a passion of agonized rage.
  1932, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World‎, London: Chatto & Windus
5. To stop short and refuse to go on.
  Quotations
  I’ve seen cattle that were handled in two identical facilities easily walk through one and balk in the other.
  1995, Temple Grandin, Thinking in Pictures, page 6
6. To refuse suddenly.
  Quotations
  Real affection, it seemed, he could not have for me; it had been only fitful passion: that was balked; he would want me no more
  1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter XI, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], page 303
7. To disappoint; to frustrate.
  Quotations
  Well, / I know that none who enter there return / As they have enter'd—many never; but / They shall not balk my entrance.
  1821, Lord Byron, “The Two Foscari, an Historical Tragedy”, in Sardanapalus, a Tragedy; The Two Foscari, a Tragedy; Cain, a Mystery, London: John Murray, […], Act I, scene i, page 195
8. To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition.
  Quotations
  Her list in strifull termes with him to balke
  1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 12
9. To leave or make balks in.
  Quotations
  But so well halt no man the plough, That he ne balketh other while(please add an English translation of this quotation)
  c. 1386–1390, John Gower, edited by Reinhold Pauli, Confessio Amantis of John Gower: Edited and Collated with the Best Manuscripts, volumes (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Bell and Daldy […], published 1857
10. To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles.
  Quotations
  Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights, / Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter see.
  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, [Act I, scene i]
11. (sports, intransitive) To make a deceptive motion to deceive another player.
  Quotations
  The best advice you can receive regarding balking is to always maintain poise and composure on the mound.
  2013, Aaron Wisewell, The Baseball Coach

balk²

verb
third-person singular simple present balks, present participle balking, simple past and past participle balked
1. To indicate to fishermen, by shouts or signals from shore, the direction taken by the shoals of herring.

Definition of "balk"

balk1

noun

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balk2

verb

balk¹

balk²