Balk vs Waver - What's the difference?
balk | waver |
ridge, an unplowed strip of land
* Fuller
beam, crossbeam
A hindrance or disappointment; a check.
* South
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
(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
* Bishop Hall
* Drayton
To stop, check, block.
To stop short and refuse to go on.
To refuse suddenly.
To disappoint; to frustrate; to foil; to baffle; to thwart.
* Byron
To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition.
* Spenser
To leave or make balks in.
To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles.
* Shakespeare
To indicate to fishermen, by shouts or signals from shore, the direction taken by the shoals of herring.
(Webster 1913)
----
To sway back and forth; to totter or reel.
* Ld. Berners
* Sir Walter Scott
To flicker, glimmer, quiver, as a weak light.
To fluctuate or vary, as commodity prices or a poorly sustained musical pitch.
To shake or tremble, as the hands or voice.
To falter; become unsteady; begin to fail or give way.
* 1903 , Bill Arp, From the Uncivil War to Date
* 2014 , Jacob Steinberg, "
To be indecisive between choices; to feel or show doubt or indecision; to vacillate.
An act of wavering, vacillating, etc.
Someone who waves, enjoys waving, etc.
Someone who specializes in waving (hair treatment).
A tool that accomplishes hair waving.
(UK, dialect, dated) A sapling left standing in a fallen wood.
As nouns the difference between balk and waver
is that balk is ridge, an unplowed strip of land while waver is an act of wavering, vacillating, etc.As verbs the difference between balk and waver
is that 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 while waver is to sway back and forth; to totter or reel.balk
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) balke, (etyl) balca, either from or influenced by (etyl) .Alternative forms
* baulkNoun
(en noun)- Bad ploughmen made balks of such ground.
- a balk to the confidence of the bold undertaker
Verb
(en verb)- By reason of the contagion then in London, we balked the nns.
- Sick he is, and keeps his bed, and balks his meat.
- Nor doth he any creature balk , / But lays on all he meeteth.
- The horse balked .
- to balk expectation
- They shall not balk my entrance.
- In strifeful terms with him to balk .
- (Gower)
- 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)References
waver
English
Verb
(en verb)- Flowers wavered in the breeze.
- With banners and pennons wavering with the wind.
- Thou wouldst waver on one of these trees as a terror to all evil speakers against dignities.
- His voice wavered when the reporter brought up the controversial topic.
- ...and that when a man was in the wrong his courage wavered , and his nerves became unsteady, and so he couldn't fight to advantage and was easily overcome.
Wigan shock Manchester City in FA Cup again to reach semi-finals", The Guardian , 9 March 2014:
- Although they believe they can overhaul their 2-0 deficit, they cannot afford to be as lethargic as this at Camp Nou, and the time is surely approaching when Manuel Pellegrini's faith in MartÃn Demichelis wavers .
Noun
(en noun)- I felt encouraged by all the enthusiastic wavers in the crowd.
- The Fourth of July brings out all the flag wavers .
- Johnny is such a little waver ; everyone who passes by receives his preferred greeting.
- (Halliwell)