• (RP) IPA: /bɔːk/, /bɔːlk/
• (America) IPA: /bɔk/
• (cot-caught, Northern Cities Vowel Shift) IPA: /bɑk/

balk (plural balks)

1. An uncultivated ridge formed in the open field system, caused by the action of ploughing.

   • Bad ploughmen made balks of such ground.

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.

   • a balk to the confidence of the bold undertaker

5. A sudden and obstinate stop; a failure.
6. (obsolete) An omission.
7. (sports) A deceptive motion; a feint.
   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.

• French: raie
• German: Rain, Furchenrücken
• Italian: porca

• German: Balken
• Russian: ба́лка
• Spanish: viga

balk (balks, present participle balking; past and past participle balked)

1. (archaic) To pass over or by.
2. To omit, miss or overlook by chance.

   Synonyms: miss, overlook

3. (obsolete) To miss intentionally; to avoid.

   Synonyms: avoid, shun, refuse, shirk

   • By reason of the contagion then in London, we balked the nns.

   • Sick he is, and keeps his bed, and balks his meat.

   • 1627, Michael Drayton, Nymphidia

     Nor doth he any creature balk, / But lays on all he meeteth.

4. To stop, check, block.

5. To stop short and refuse to go on.

   The horse balked.

6. To refuse suddenly.
   • 1847 October 15, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter 11, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. [...] In Three Volumes, volume 2, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], OCLC 3163777 ↗:

     quote en

7. To disappoint; to frustrate.

   Synonyms: frustrate, foil, baffle, thwart

   to balk expectation

   • They shall not balk my entrance.

8. To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition.

   • In strifeful terms with him to balk.

9. To leave or make balks in.
10. To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles.
    • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene i]:

      Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights, / Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter see.

• German: verhindern, stoppen, blockieren, behindern, vereiteln, Einhalt gebieten, durchkreuzen
• Italian: ostacolare

• French: regimber
• German: verweigern, stoppen, scheuen, stocken
• Italian: tirarsi indietro

• French: regimber
• German: sich sperren, zurückweisen

balk (balks, present participle balking; past and past participle balked)

1. To indicate to fishermen, by shouts or signals from shore, the direction taken by the shoals of herring.

1. Surname