baulk

[ bawk ]

/ bɔk /

verb (used with or without object), noun

balk.

Words nearby baulk

bauera, baugh, bauhaus, bauhinia, baul, baulk, baulk line, baum, baum marten, baumeister, baumgarten

Definition for baulks (2 of 2)

balk

or baulk

[ bawk ]

/ bɔk /

verb (used without object)

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.

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

SYNONYMS FOR balk

4 check, retard, obstruct, impede, prevent.

OTHER WORDS FROM balk

balk·er, noun balk·ing·ly, adverb un·balked, adjective un·balk·ing, adjective

un·balk·ing·ly, adverb

Example sentences from the Web for baulks

Unfortunately, culture is an active disease which causes positive ill and baulks potential good.

Art |Clive Bell
The hole was soon dug and the anchor deposited therein, planks and baulks of timber being laid upon it as before.

Across the Spanish Main |Harry Collingwood
Then upon the latter are laid "baulks" and upon them the flooring as usual.

The Romance of War Inventions |Thomas W. Corbin
Cox won't ride him because he baulks, and so he has come into my stable.

Phineas Redux |Anthony Trollope

For a single instant the stockade became outlined, and Dick thought he saw heads peeping up above the baulks of timber.

With Wolseley to Kumasi |F.S. Brereton

British Dictionary definitions for baulks (1 of 2)

balk

baulk

/ (bɔːk, bɔːlk) /

verb

(intr usually foll by at) to stop short, esp suddenly or unexpectedly; jib the horse balked at the jump

(intr foll by at) to turn away abruptly; recoil he balked at the idea of murder

(tr) to thwart, check, disappoint, or foil he was balked in his plans

(tr) to avoid deliberately he balked the question

(tr) to miss unintentionally

noun

a roughly squared heavy timber beam

a timber tie beam of a roof

an unploughed ridge to prevent soil erosion or mark a division on common land

an obstacle; hindrance; disappointment

baseball an illegal motion by a pitcher towards the plate or towards the base when there are runners on base, esp without delivering the ball

Derived forms of balk

balker or baulker, noun

Word Origin for balk

Old English balca; related to Old Norse bálkr partition, Old High German balco beam

British Dictionary definitions for baulks (2 of 2)

baulk

/ (bɔːk, usually for sense 1 bɔːlk) /

noun

Also (US): balk billiards

the space, usually 29 inches deep, between the baulk line and the bottom cushion
(in baulk-line games) one of the spaces between the cushions and the baulk lines
in baulk inside one of these spaces

archaeol a strip of earth left between excavation trenches for the study of the complete stratigraphy of a site

croquet either of two lines (A baulk and B baulk) at diagonally opposite ends of the court, from which the ball is struck into play

verb, noun

a variant spelling of balk

BROWSE DICTIONARY

Learning

baulk

verb (used with or without object), noun

Words nearby baulk

Definition for baulks (2 of 2)

or baulk

verb (used without object)

verb (used with object)

noun

Origin of balk

SYNONYMS FOR balk

OTHER WORDS FROM balk

Example sentences from the Web for baulks

British Dictionary definitions for baulks (1 of 2)

baulk

verb

noun

Derived forms of balk

Word Origin for balk

British Dictionary definitions for baulks (2 of 2)

noun

verb, noun