BALKING • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Balking

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/bˈɔkɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Balk v. t. (past & past part. balked; pres. part. balking)

1.

To leave or make balks in. (Obs.)

2.

To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles. (Obs.) "Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights, Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter see."

3.

To omit, miss, or overlook by chance. (Obs.)

4.

To miss intentionally; to avoid; to shun; to refuse; to let go by; to shirk. (Obs. or Obsolescent) "By reason of the contagion then in London, we balked the inns." "Sick he is, and keeps his bed, and balks his meat." "Nor doth he any creature balk, But lays on all he meeteth."

5.

To disappoint; to frustrate; to foil; to baffle; to thwart; as, to balk expectation. "They shall not balk my entrance."

Balk v. i.

1.

To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition. (Obs.) "In strifeful terms with him to balk."

2.

To stop abruptly and stand still obstinately; to jib; to stop short; to swerve; as, the horse balks. Note: This has been regarded as an Americanism, but it occurs in Spenser's "Faerie Queene," Book IV., 10, xxv. "Ne ever ought but of their true loves talkt, Ne ever for rebuke or blame of any balkt."

3.

(Baseball) To commit a balk (6); of a pitcher.

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

See images of 'Balking'

Etymology of 'Balking'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Balking" Quotes from Famous Books

... could not resist a surreptitious wink at his companions as they passed through the doorway, which was returned in kind by his graceless companions. But, although they had had the satisfaction of balking the German officers, they were not long in appreciating the discomforts of their present situation. When they reached the temporary prison camp, they were herded into a large tent, already overcrowded with French, English, ...

— Army Boys in the French Trenches • Homer Randall

... me to the point that the constant inhibition, blocking and balking of desires and wishes, though in part socially necessary and ethically justifiable, is decidedly wearisome, at times to all, and to many at all times. It seems so easy and pleasant to relax in purposes, in morals, in thought, to be a vagrant spirit seeking nothing but ...

— The Foundations of Personality • Abraham Myerson

... often frighten them as much as if you were to raise a whip over them. As soon as he is familiar with the harness and lines, take him out and put him by the side of a gentle horse, and go through the same process that you did with the balking horse. Always use a bridle without blinkers when you are breaking a horse ...

— A New Illustrated Edition of J. S. Rarey's Art of Taming Horses • J. S. Rarey

... only reason in this case was, that the captain had determined to have the custom-house officers on board on Monday, and wished to have his brig in order. Jack is a slave aboard ship; but still he has many opportunities of thwarting and balking his master. When there is danger or necessity, or when he is well used, no one can work faster than he; but the instant he feels that he is kept at work for nothing, or, as the nautical phrase is, "humbugged,'' no sloth could make less headway. He must not refuse his duty, or be in any ...

— Two Years Before the Mast • Richard Henry Dana

... balking at Hamerton that his line is graceful. He belongs to the old-fashioned school which did not dream, much less approve, of modern tonal effects in their plates. A Lalanne etching is as clean and vivid as a photograph (not an "art" photograph). It is also as hard. Atmosphere, in the material ...

— Promenades of an Impressionist • James Huneker

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