The Real Definition of Balk

balk
–verb (used without object)
1. to stop, as at an obstacle, and refuse to proceed or to do something specified (usually fol. by at): He balked at making the speech.
2. (of a horse, mule, etc.) to stop short and stubbornly refuse to go on.
3. Baseball. to commit a balk. –verb (used with object)
4. to place an obstacle in the way of; hinder; thwart: a sudden reversal that balked her hopes.
5. Archaic. to let slip; fail to use: to balk an opportunity. –noun
6. a check or hindrance; defeat; disappointment.
7. a strip of land left unplowed.
8. a crossbeam in the roof of a house that unites and supports the rafters; tie beam.
9. any heavy timber used for building purposes.
10. 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.
11. Billiards. any of the eight panels or compartments lying between the cushions of the table and the balklines.
12. Obsolete. a miss, slip, or failure: to make a balk. —Idiom
13. in balk, inside any of the spaces in back of the balklines on a billiard table.


Yes, Kiri, Keely, and Tricia -- I DID look it up. :P:D