balk

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A: Under the baseball rules, a balk is a 'no pitch', so we do not count this under the pitch count rules, similarly for throws to the bases by pitchers (pickoffs, to make a play on a runner) or warm-up throws before the inning starts.

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Definitions (29)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (12)

  1. intransitive verb To stop short and refuse to go on: The horse balked at the jump.
  2. intransitive verb To refuse obstinately or abruptly: She balked at the very idea of compromise.
  3. intransitive verb Sports To make an incomplete or misleading motion.
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Examples (50)

  • I wondered whose side you were on You'll balk, then you'll give it to him. —  Analog July, 1974
  • Infuriated at this balk, the creature turned again, lunging at the ogre. —  Ogre Ogre
  • I felt him balk, the salty tang giving him cause for momentary uncertainty. —  XXXX
  • They expected him to balk, and to have to pay a forfeit for that. —  Yon Ill Wind
  • Too bad no one really even knows what a balk is ... —  Yankees Chick
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Used in the same contextWord Family

balk:   balked ·  balking ·  balks
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English balken, to plow up in ridges, from balk, ridge, from Old English balca and from Old Norse balkr, beam.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Prob. from Middle English *balken (not found in this sense, but cf. balken, variant of belken, belchen, belch, vociferate), from Anglo-Saxon bælcian, shout, = Friesic balckien = Flemish and D. balken, bawl, bray; cf. Flemish and D. bulken = Low German bölken, low, bellow, = German bölken, blöken, bleat, low, bellow. The Anglo-Saxon form, which occurs but once in this sense, is by some identified with the closely related bealcan, or, with an added formative, bealcettan, belcettan, later Middle English balken, belken, belchen, English belk, belch, used also, in Anglo-Saxon chiefly, like L. eructare, as a transitive verb, and without offensive implication, belch out, vociferate, utter (words, hymns, etc.); so Middle English bolken, modern dial. bouk, boke, bock, etc.: see belch, belk, bolk. All these words are prob. based on the same imitative root; cf. bawl, bellow, bleat.
 

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/bɔk/
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