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Definition
to refuse to complyLess common specialized meanings:
Baseball: an illegal pitching motion while runners are on base
Equestrian: when a horse refuses to obey a rider — especially when stopping in front of a jump
Billiards: an area of the billiard table from which opening shots with the cue ball are made
Bowling: when a bowler stops in mid-swing without releasing the ball
Badminton: any deceptive movement that disconcerts an opponent before or during the service
Archeology: a side wall of an excavated partition of earth left standing between adjoining excavation units
Agriculture: a strip of ground left unplowed as a boundary line between two plowed portions
Architecture: one of several parallel sloping beams that support a roof
Carpentry: a thick piece of unfinished wood
- Our teacher balked at the suggestion of an open-book test.
- The horse balked at the jump.
- She balked at the gate, and I had to hit her hard with the stick a few times to move her forward.Robert Newton Peck -- A Day No Pigs Would Die
- Papi wanted a negocio of his own, that was his dream, but he balked at starting at the bottom, selling hot dogs.Junot Diaz -- Drown
- Hernandez balked, and the officers lowered their price.Sonia Nazario -- Enrique's Journey
- The animals balked at such places, and the camel drivers were forced to dismount and unburden their charges.Paulo Coelho -- The Alchemist
- At six, Mary went over the Sliding Rock without a quiver, and I have seen strong men balk at that feat.London, Jack -- South Sea Tales
- And education often wastes its effort in attempts to thwart and balk this natural magnetism, which is sure to select what belongs to it.Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- Essays, First Series
- I've had a dozen balk at that big jump.London, Jack -- The Valley of the Moon
- a player with ball in hand must play from the balk
- It is the spirit of my noble- minded Cora that leads them, Duncan', he said, 'and I will not balk it.Cooper, James Fenimore -- The Last of The Mohicans
- At the very moment when she would have seized her prey, the hare moved and darted along the balk between the winter rye and the stubble.Tolstoy, Leo -- War and Peace
- Edna admired the skill of his maneuver, and avoided any occasion to balk his intentions.Chopin, Kate -- The Awakening and Selected Short Stories
- It's all dead easy if Rosy don't balk when the flag drops.Henry, O. -- The Four Million
- If you interfere to balk his vengeance, you should remember there is one way to shut your testimony out; and that is to put you in the dock.Stevenson, Robert Louis -- Kidnapped
- ' "Dearest," said Aslan very gently, "you and your brother will never come balk to Narnia."C.S. Lewis -- The Voyage of the Dawn Trader
- If you interfere to balk his vengeance, you should remember there is one way to shut your testimony out; and that is to put you in the dock.Robert Louis Stevenson -- Kidnapped
- The wind balked my every effort, ripping the canvas out of my hands and in an instant undoing what I had gained by ten minutes of severest struggle.Jack London -- Sea Wolf
- The vyes hesitated, talons twitching as they squinted and balked at this unexpected turn.Henry H. Neff -- The Second Siege
- I would have collected $140,000, never have seen Star a second time— Or would Her Wisdom have been balked?Robert A. Heinlein -- Glory Road
balked = refused to comply
balked = refused to comply
balked = refused to comply
balked = refused to comply