Balk

balk







Y

D



–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 (椽); 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. 



Also, baulk. 



—Synonyms 

4. check, retard, obstruct, impede, prevent.





C



balk (n.), balk, balk at (vv.), balky (adj.) 

 

The British frequently spell these baulk and baulky. Rhyme them with talk; the l is silent. 



The noun means "a ridge of land left unplowed, either deliberately as a boundary [hence figuratively the territory behind the balkline on a billiard table] or carelessly [hence figuratively the error in baseball, wherein the pitcher moves illegally while his foot is on the rubber; runners are given the next base as penalty for the unfair hindrance this poses to their advancing]."



A balk is also a rough-hewn piece of timber, probably an analogy with the rough, unplowed strip of land. 



The verb balk means "to stop or impede as with an obstacle," as in The [horse] balked when I tried to lead it across the bridge, and also to commit a balk in baseball. 



To balk [at] is intransitive, and means "to shy away from, to refuse to cooperate," as in He balked [at] going to the concert. 



The adjective balky means "uncooperative, resistant, stubborn": Balky horses are dangerous nuisances. 



All these senses are Standard, even the use in baseball jargon.  





　

The part of Bishop Edvard Vergérus was written by Ingmar Bergman with Max von Sydow in mind. When the screenplay was completed, von Sydow was contacted about playing the role, which would have been his first in a Bergman film since Beröringen (1971). 



Von Sydow was willing and, in fact, very excited about playing the role. However, Bergman was not aware of this, since von Sydow was in Los Angeles at the time, and could only be reached through his agent who, acting in what he perceived as von Sydow's interest, told Bergman and his producers that von Sydow would only play the role if he could have a percentage of the film's profits, in addition to his salary. 



The producers, already [stretched] to their financial limits, of course balked, and told the agent that, sadly, there could be no such compromise, and began looking for other actors to play the pivotal part. 



By the time von Sydow had learned why his beloved role had been taken from him, Jan Malmsjö had already been cast as the Bishop, and von Sydow lost his chance to star in what would later be known to be Bergman's "last film" (although he would play key roles in Goda viljan, Den (1992) and Enskilda samtal (1996) (TV), both written by Bergman). 



Von Sydow was furious about the incident, and, by certain accounts, still [harbours] a bitter grudge about it to this day.





thwart baffle

cusp 

foil

Loyal troops foiled his [attempt] to overthrow the government.  

The [straight] man was an able foil to the [comic].  

and proved an [apt] foil for the leering one-liners of Bob "Cherchez la Femme" Hope in Paris Holiday (1957) and Call Me Bwana (1963). 

forestall

to forestall a [riot] by deploying police.

The couple's spiteful joint sessions don't forestall their [inevitable] divorce

Stagnation



harness

trot

horse, go at a gait between walk and run

trudge

Origin: tread and drudge 

As he [trudges] across the wilderness, Block is visited by Death (Bengt Ekerot), [garbed] in the traditional black robe.

wobble

The [table] wobbled on its uneven legs.

His [voice] wobbled.

lurch

Dressed in tinfoil and [lurching] like Frankenstein's monster

shamble(s)

It stars Jack Black as Jerry, a [shambling], logorrheic loser who lives in a trailer 

Brendan Gleeson, with that noble shamble[s] of a face and the [heft] of a boxer gone to seed

amble

go at a slow, easy pace; stroll

Day-Lewis—an [ambling] scarecrow under [boater] and [musty] cloth coat

—is as rooted as an [oak] in his character and milieu

Convulsion