balk
Other forms: balked; balks; balking
If you balk at your mother's suggestion that you take on more responsibility, you're saying no to added chores. To balk means to refuse to go along with.
A donkey balks when it refuses to move forward. This is a good picture for balk which is often used in conjunction with demands. Demands are something people often balk at like a donkey refusing to move. In baseball, a pitcher balks when he or she begins a pitch by winding up, but does not complete it. It is as if he is refusing to complete a started pitch, and it is against the rules.
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refuse to comply
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show unwillingness towards
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types:
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disdain, freeze off, pooh-pooh, reject, scorn, spurn, turn down
reject with contempt
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contract out
refuse to pay a levy to a union for political use
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regret
decline formally or politely
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repudiate
refuse to recognize or pay
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disobey
refuse to go along with; refuse to follow; be disobedient
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rebuff, repel, snub
reject outright and bluntly
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sit in
participate in an act of civil disobedience
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counteract, countermine, sabotage, subvert, undermine, weaken
destroy property or hinder normal operations
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baulk, jib, resist
refuse to comply
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something immaterial that interferes with or delays action or progress
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synonyms:
baulk, check, deterrent, handicap, hinderance, hindrance, impediment
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types:
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albatross, millstone
(figurative) something that hinders or handicaps
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bind
something that hinders as if with bonds
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diriment impediment
(canon law) an impediment that invalidates a marriage (such as the existence of a prior marriage)
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drag
something that slows or delays progress
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obstacle, obstruction
something immaterial that stands in the way and must be circumvented or surmounted
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straitjacket
anything immaterial that severely hinders or confines
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barrier, roadblock
any condition that makes it difficult to make progress or to achieve an objective
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hang-up, hitch, rub, snag
an unforeseen obstacle
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hurdle
an obstacle that you are expected to overcome
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stymie, stymy
a thwarting and distressing situation
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type of:
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difficulty
a factor causing trouble in achieving a positive result or tending to produce a negative result
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an illegal pitching motion while runners are on base
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the area on a billiard table behind the balkline“a player with ball in hand must play from the balk”
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synonyms:
baulk
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type of:
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area, expanse, surface area
the extent of a 2-dimensional surface enclosed within a boundary
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area, expanse, surface area
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one of several parallel sloping beams that support a roof
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Vocabulary lists containing balk
In this twist on the musical My Fair Lady that was inspired by George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, Helena Higgins and Penelope Pickering, students at 19th-century London's Royal Academy of Culinaria Artisticus, disagree on whether transforming street vendor Elijah Little into a gentleman chef is a worthwhile project. Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–3, Chapters 4–7, Chapters 8–11, Chapters 12–15, Chapter 16–Epilogue
In this collection of twelve essays, the leader of New England's transcendentalist movement shares his philosophical ideas on different aspects of mid-nineteenth-century life. Read the full text here.
In this fourth book of the series The Trials of Apollo, Lester joins the Roman demigods in their search for the tomb of an undead king.
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