Balk vs Falter - What's the difference?

As nouns the difference between balk and falter

is that balk is ridge, an unplowed strip of land while falter is butterfly.

As a verb balk

is (archaic) to pass over or by or balk can be to indicate to fishermen, by shouts or signals from shore, the direction taken by the shoals of herring.

balk

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) balke, (etyl) balca, either from or influenced by (etyl) .

Alternative forms

* baulk

Noun

(en noun)

ridge, an unplowed strip of land

* Fuller

Bad ploughmen made balks of such ground.

beam, crossbeam

A hindrance or disappointment; a check.

* South

a balk to the confidence of the bold undertaker

A sudden and obstinate stop; a failure.

(sports) deceptive motion; feint

# (baseball) an illegal motion by the pitcher, intended to deceive a runner

# (badminton) motion used to deceive an opponent during a serve

Verb

(en verb)

(archaic) To pass over or by.

To omit, miss, or overlook by chance.

(obsolete) To miss intentionally; to avoid; to shun; to refuse; to let go by; to shirk.

* Evelyn

By reason of the contagion then in London, we balked the nns.

* Bishop Hall

Sick he is, and keeps his bed, and balks his meat.

* Drayton

Nor doth he any creature balk , / But lays on all he meeteth.

To stop, check, block.

To stop short and refuse to go on.

The horse balked .

To refuse suddenly.

To disappoint; to frustrate; to foil; to baffle; to thwart.

to balk expectation

* Byron

They shall not balk my entrance.

To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition.

* Spenser

In strifeful terms with him to balk .

To leave or make balks in.

(Gower)

To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles.

* Shakespeare

Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights, / Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter see.

Etymology 2

Probably from (etyl) .

Verb

(en verb)

To indicate to fishermen, by shouts or signals from shore, the direction taken by the shoals of herring.

(Webster 1913)

References

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falter

English

Noun

(-)

unsteadiness.

Verb

(en verb)

To waver or be unsteady.

* Wiseman

He found his legs falter .

(ambitransitive) To stammer; to utter with hesitation, or in a weak and trembling manner.

* Byron

And here he faltered forth his last farewell.

* Milton

With faltering speech and visage incomposed.

To fail in distinctness or regularity of exercise; said of the mind or of thought.

* I. Taylor

Here indeed the power of disinct conception of space and distance falters .

To stumble.

(figuratively) To lose faith or vigor; to doubt or abandon (a cause).

And remember, comrades, your resolution must never falter .

To hesitate in purpose or action.

* Shakespeare

Ere her native king / Shall falter under foul rebellion's arms.

To cleanse or sift, as barley.

(Halliwell)