balk

See also: Balk

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English balke, from Old English balca, either from or influenced by Old Norse bálkr (“partition, ridge of land”), from Proto-Germanic *balkô. Cognate with Dutch balk (“balk”), German Balken (“balk”), Italian balcone (“balcony”).

Alternative forms

• baulk

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bɔːk/, /bɔːlk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /bɔk/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /bɑk/
• Rhymes: -ɔːk

Noun

balk (plural balks)

1. (agriculture) An uncultivated ridge formed in the open field system, caused by the action of ploughing.
   • 1647, Tho[mas] Fuller, “Scripture Observations”, in Good Thoughts in Worse Times. […], London: […] W. W. for John Williams […], →OCLC, section XVI (Text improved), page 89:

     How fruitfull are the ſeeming Barren places of Scripture. Bad Plow-men, which make Balkes of ſuch Ground.

2. (archaeology) The wall of earth at the edge of an excavation.
4. 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".
5. A hindrance or disappointment; a check.
   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:
     , "Concealment of Sin"

     a balk to the confidence of the bold undertaker

6. A sudden and obstinate stop.

   Synonym: failure

7. (obsolete) An omission.
8. (sports) A deceptive motion.

   Synonym: 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.
9. (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.
10. (snooker) The area of the table lying behind the baulk line.
11. (fishing) The rope by which fishing nets are fastened together.

Derived terms

• balkish
• balk line
• balky
• baulk end
• bierbalk
• randle-balk

 

Translations

an unplowed strip of land

• Breton: erv (br) m
• Bulgarian: неизорана ивица земя
• Finnish: kyntämätön sarka, raja (fi)
• French: raie (fr) f
• German: Rain (de) m, Feldrain (de) m, Feldrand (de) m, Furchenrücken m
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: σφῦρα f (sphûra)

• Italian: porca (it) f
• Manx: immyr vane f
• Polish: miedza (pl) f
• Romanian: hat (ro) n, hotar (ro) n
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: mjaza f

beam

• Bulgarian: греда (bg) (greda)
• Czech: vazný trám
• Dutch: balk (nl) m
• Finnish: palkki (fi), parru (fi)
• German: Balken (de) m
• Indonesian: balak (id), balok (id)
• Malay: balak (ms)
• Norwegian: bjelke (no) m
• Ottoman Turkish: مرتك (mertek)
• Polish: bal (pl) m, dyl (pl) m, kloc (pl) m
• Romanian: grindă (ro) f, lonjeron (ro) n
• Russian: ба́лка (ru) f (bálka)
• Spanish: viga (es)

hindrance

• Bulgarian: , спънка (bg) (spǎnka), пречка (bg) (prečka)
• Czech: překážka (cs) f, zábrana f, zklamání (cs) n
• Finnish: este (fi)
• Romanian: obstacol (ro) n, piedică (ro) f

(sports) deceptive motion; feint

• Bulgarian: финт (bg) (fint), лъжливо движение
• Finnish: harhautus (fi)
• Romanian: fentă (ro) f

Verb

balk (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.

   Synonyms: miss, overlook

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

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

   Synonyms: avoid, shun, refuse, shirk

   • 1641 November 22 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 12 November 1641]”, 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, →OCLC:

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

   • 1612–1626, [Joseph Hall], “(please specify the page)”, in [Contemplations vpon the Principall Passages of the Holy Storie], volume (please specify |volume=II, V, or VI), London, →OCLC:

     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; to hinder, impede.
   • 1932, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World‎^[1], London: Chatto & Windus:

     Balked for the second time, the passion of his grief had found another outlet, was transformed into a passion of agonized rage.

5. To stop short and refuse to go on.

   The horse balked.

   • 1995, Temple Grandin, Thinking in Pictures, page 6:

     I’ve seen cattle that were handled in two identical facilities easily walk through one and balk in the other.

6. To refuse suddenly.
   • 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter XI, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 303:

     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

7. To disappoint; to frustrate.

   Synonyms: frustrate, foil, baffle, thwart

   to balk expectation

   • 1821, Lord Byron, “The Two Foscari, an Historical Tragedy”, in Sardanapalus, a Tragedy; The Two Foscari, a Tragedy; Cain, a Mystery, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 195:

     Well, / I know that none who enter there return / As they have enter'd—many never; but / They shall not balk my entrance.

8. To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 12:

     Her list in strifull termes with him to balke

9. To leave or make balks in.
   • c. 1386–1390, John Gower, edited by Reinhold Pauli, Confessio Amantis of John Gower: Edited and Collated with the Best Manuscripts, volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Bell and Daldy […], published 1857, →OCLC:

     But so well halt no man the plough,
     That he ne balketh other while

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

10. To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles.
    • 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, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

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

11. (sports, intransitive) To make a deceptive motion to deceive another player.
    • 2013, Aaron Wisewell, The Baseball Coach:

      The best advice you can receive regarding balking is to always maintain poise and composure on the mound.

Derived terms

• balked landing
• balking
• balkingly
• unbalked

 

Translations

(archaic in English) to pass over or by — see also pass over,‎ pass by

• Hungarian: kikerül (hu), elhalad (mellette) (hu), elmegy (mellette) (hu)

to omit, miss or overlook by chance — see also omit,‎ miss,‎ overlook

• German: übergehen (de)
• Hungarian: kihagy (hu), elsiklik (hu), átsiklik (hu), eltéveszt (hu), elmulaszt (hu)

(obsolete in English) to miss intentionally; to avoid — see also miss,‎ avoid

• German: vermeiden (de)
• Hungarian: kihagy (hu), mellőz (hu), kerül (hu), elszalaszt (hu), elmulaszt (hu), kivonja magát (hu), elkerül (hu)

to stop, check, block — see also stop,‎ check,‎ block

• Bulgarian: преча (bg) (preča), спъвам (bg) (spǎvam), затруднявам (bg) (zatrudnjavam)
• Czech: zarazit (cs) pf, zastavit (cs) pf, zmařit (cs) pf
• Finnish: estää (fi)
• German: verhindern (de), stoppen (de), blockieren (de), behindern (de), vereiteln (de), Einhalt gebieten, durchkreuzen (de)
• Hungarian: meghiúsít (hu), akadályoz (hu), gátol (hu), hátráltat (hu), keresztülhúzza a számításait
• Italian: ostacolare (it)

to stop short and refuse to go on — see also stop short

• Bulgarian: запирам се (zapiram se)
• Czech: zarazit se pf, vzpínat se impf
• Finnish: seisahtua (fi), tehdä tenä
• French: regimber (fr)
• German: verweigern (de), stoppen (de), scheuen (de), stocken (de)
• Hungarian: megmakacsolja magát (hu), megbokrosodik (hu), megtorpan (hu), vonakodik (hu), húzódozik (hu), habozik (hu), bokkol
• Italian: tirarsi indietro
• Occitan: reguitnar (oc)
• Serbo-Croatian: ustuknuti (sh)

to refuse suddenly — see also refuse

• Bulgarian: пропускам (bg) (propuskam), отказвам (bg) (otkazvam)
• Czech: vzepřít se pf
• Finnish: tehdä tenä, kieltäytyä (fi)
• French: regimber (fr)
• German: sich sperren, zurückweisen (de)
• Hungarian: visszahőköl (hu), visszariad (hu), visszaretten (hu)
• Serbo-Croatian: ustuknuti (sh)

to disappoint; to frustrate — see also disappoint,‎ frustrate

• Hungarian: csalódást kelt/okoz, kiábrándít (hu)

to engage in contradiction; to be in opposition

• Czech: vzpírat se impf
• Hungarian: szembeszáll (hu), elébe áll, keresztbe áll, ellenez (hu)

to leave or make balks in

to leave heaped up; to heap up in piles

sports, intransitive: to make a deceptive motion to deceive another player

Etymology 2

Probably from Dutch balken (“to bray, bawl”).

Verb

balk (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.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “balk”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• Blak, blak

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɑlk/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: balk
• Rhymes: -ɑlk
• Homophone: Balk

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch balke, from Old Dutch *balco, from Proto-West Germanic *balkō, from Proto-Germanic *balkô.

Noun

balk m (plural balken, diminutive balkje n)

1. a beam, solid support
2. (mathematics) a cuboid
3. a section, icon et cetera in such rectangular shape

Derived terms

• balkenbrij
• dakbalk
• draagbalk
• evenwichtsbalk
• staartbalk
• stootbalk

- beam-shaped

• notenbalk
• schuifbalk
• taakbalk
• zoekbalk

Related terms

• balkon

Descendants

• Afrikaans: balk
• Negerhollands: balk
• → Caribbean Javanese: baleg, balok
• → Javanese: ꦧꦭꦺꦴꦏ꧀ (balok)
  • → Indonesian: balok
• → Malay: balak
  • > Indonesian: balak (inherited)
• → Papiamentu: balki (from the diminutive)
• → Saramaccan: báíki
• → Sranan Tongo: barki, balk
  • → Caribbean Hindustani: barki

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

balk

1. inflection of balken:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

Old Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (10^th–15^th CE) /baːlʲk/
• IPA^(key): (15^th CE) /bɒlʲk/

Noun

balk m animacy unattested

1. Alternative form of balka

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Swedish balker, from Old Norse bialki, bǫlkr, from Proto-Germanic *balkuz, from *balkô (“beam, plank”).

Noun

balk c

1. a wooden or metal beam
2. (heraldry) a bend (diagonal band)
3. (law) code (major section of legislation)

   brottsbalk

   criminal code

4. (slang, vulgar) penis

Declension

Declension of balk

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	balk	balks
	definite	balken	balkens
plural	indefinite	balkar	balkars
	definite	balkarna	balkarnas

Synonyms

• bjälke

Derived terms

• tvärbalk
• ändbalk
• ändtvärbalk

 

Further reading

• balk in Svenska Akademiens ordböcker
• balk in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)