walk
see also: Walk
Pronunciation Verb

walk (walks, present participle walking; past and past participle walked)

  1. (intransitive) To move on the feet by alternately setting each foot (or pair or group of feet, in the case of animals with four or more feet) forward, with at least one foot on the ground at all times. Compare run.
    To walk briskly for an hour every day is to keep fit.
    • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], OCLC 16832619 ↗, page 16 ↗:
      Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. […] His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn. He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.
  2. (intransitive, colloquial, legal) To "walk free", i.e. to win, or avoid, a criminal court case, particularly when actually guilty.
    If you can’t present a better case, that robber is going to walk.
  3. (intransitive, colloquial, euphemistic) Of an object, to go missing or be stolen.
    If you leave your wallet lying around, it’s going to walk.
  4. (intransitive, cricket, of a batsman) To walk off the field, as if given out, after the fielding side appeals and before the umpire has ruled; done as a matter of sportsmanship when the batsman believes he is out.
  5. (transitive) To travel (a distance) by walking.
    I walk two miles to school every day.  The museum’s not far from here – you can walk it.
    • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], OCLC 16832619 ↗, page 16 ↗:
      Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. […] His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn. He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.
  6. (transitive) To take for a walk or accompany on a walk.
    I walk the dog every morning.  Will you walk me home?
    • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The Merry VViues of VVindsor”, 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 II, scene ii]:
      I will rather trust […] a thief to walk my ambling gelding.
  7. (transitive, baseball) To allow a batter to reach base by pitching four balls.
  8. (transitive) To move something by shifting between two positions, as if it were walking.
    I carefully walked the ladder along the wall.
  9. (transitive) To full; to beat cloth to give it the consistency of felt.
  10. (transitive) To traverse by walking (or analogous gradual movement).
    I walked the streets aimlessly.   Debugging this computer program involved walking the heap.
  11. (transitive, aviation) To operate the left and right throttles of (an aircraft) in alternation.
    • 1950, Flying Magazine (volume 46, number 3, page 18)
      Still keeping his tail in the air, Red coaxed the “Airknocker” ahead and as we grasped his struts he slowly retarded the throttle. We walked the plane between two tiedown blocks and not until we had tied the struts did Red cut the switch.
  12. (intransitive, colloquial) To leave, resign.
    If we don't offer him more money he'll walk.
    • He will make their cows and garrans to walk.
  13. (transitive) To push (a vehicle) alongside oneself as one walks.
    • 1994, John Forester, Bicycle Transportation: A Handbook for Cycling Transportation Engineers, MIT Press, p.245 ↗:
      The county had a successful defense only because the judge kept telling the jury at every chance that the cyclist should have walked his bicycle like a pedestrian.
  14. To behave; to pursue a course of life; to conduct oneself.
    • We walk perversely with God, and he will walk crookedly toward us.
  15. To be stirring; to be abroad; to go restlessly about; said of things or persons expected to remain quiet, such as a sleeping person, or the spirit of a dead person.
    • I heard a pen walking in the chimney behind the cloth.
  16. (obsolete) To be in motion; to act; to move.
    • Her tongue did walk in foul reproach.
    • c. 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, “The VVinters Tale”, 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 III, scene iii]:
      I have heard, but not believed, the spirits of the dead / May walk again.
    • 1611, Ben Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy
      Do you think I'd walk in any plot?
  17. (transitive, historical) To put, keep, or train (a puppy) in a walk, or training area for dogfighting.
  18. (transitive, informal, hotel) To move a guest to another hotel if their confirmed reservation is not available on day of check-in.
Conjugation