to stop, as at an obstacle, and refuse to proceed or to do something specified (usually followed by at): He balked at making the speech.
(of a horse, mule, etc.) to stop short and stubbornly refuse to go on.
Baseball. to commit a balk.
verb (used with object)
to place an obstacle in the way of; hinder; thwart: a sudden reversal that balked her hopes.
Archaic. to let slip; fail to use: to balk an opportunity.
noun
a check or hindrance; defeat; disappointment.
a strip of land left unplowed.
a crossbeam in the roof of a house that unites and supports the rafters; tie beam.
any heavy timber used for building purposes.
Baseball. an illegal motion by a pitcher while one or more runners are on base, as a pitch in which there is either an insufficient or too long a pause after the windup or stretch, a pretended throw to first or third base or to the batter with one foot on the pitcher's rubber, etc., resulting in a penalty advancing the runner or runners one base.
Billiards. any of the eight panels or compartments lying between the cushions of the table and the balklines.
Obsolete. a miss, slip, or failure: to make a balk.
Idioms for balk
in balk, inside any of the spaces in back of the balklines on a billiard table.
Origin of balk
before 900; Middle English; Old English balca covering, beam, ridge; cognate with Old Norse bǫlkr bar, partition, Dutch balk,Old Saxon balko,German Balken,Old Norse bjalki beam, Old English bolca plank; perhaps akin to Latin sufflāmen,Slovene blazína,Lithuanian balžíenas beam. See balcony