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Balks vs Halks - What's the difference?

balks | halks |

As a verb balks

is (balk).

As a noun halks is

.

balks

English

Verb

(head)
  • (balk)

  • 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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    halks

    English

    Noun

    (head)