- 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.
- to commit a balk.
- to place an obstacle in the way of; hinder; thwart: a sudden reversal that balked her hopes.
- to let slip; fail to use: to balk an opportunity.
- 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.
- 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.
- any of the eight panels or compartments lying between the cushions of the table and the balklines.
- a miss, slip, or failure: to make a balk.
- inside any of the spaces in back of the balklines on a billiard table.
- to stop short, esp suddenly or unexpectedly; jib
- to turn away abruptly; recoil
- to thwart, check, disappoint, or foil
- to avoid deliberately
- to miss unintentionally
- 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
- an illegal motion by a pitcher towards the plate or towards the base when there are runners on base, esp without delivering the ball
