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Wordnet 3.0

ADJECTIVE (1)

1. stopping short and refusing to go on;
- Example: "a balking"
- Example: "a balky mule"
- Example: "a balky customer"
[syn: balking, balky]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Balk \Balk\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Balked (b[add]kt); p. pr. & vb. n. Balking.] [From Balk a beam; orig. to put a balk or beam in one's way, in order to stop or hinder. Cf., for sense 2, AS. on balcan legan to lay in heaps.] [1913 Webster] 1. To leave or make balks in. [Obs.] --Gower. [1913 Webster] 2. To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights, Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter see. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 3. To omit, miss, or overlook by chance. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] 4. To miss intentionally; to avoid; to shun; to refuse; to let go by; to shirk. [Obs. or Obsolescent] [1913 Webster] By reason of the contagion then in London, we balked the inns. --Evelyn. [1913 Webster] Sick he is, and keeps his bed, and balks his meat. --Bp. Hall. [1913 Webster] Nor doth he any creature balk, But lays on all he meeteth. --Drayton. [1913 Webster] 5. To disappoint; to frustrate; to foil; to baffle; to thwart; as, to balk expectation. [1913 Webster] They shall not balk my entrance. --Byron. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

balking adj 1: stopping short and refusing to go on; "a balking"; "a balky mule"; "a balky customer" [syn: balking, balky]