What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Bank vs Balk - What's the difference?

bank | balk |

As nouns the difference between bank and balk

is that bank is bench, pew while balk is ridge, an unplowed strip of land.

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.

bank

English

Alternative forms

* (all obsolete)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) banke, from (etyl) .

Noun

(en noun)
  • An institution where one can place and borrow money and take care of financial affairs.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=71, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= End of the peer show , passage=Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms.
  • A branch office of such an institution.
  • An underwriter or controller of a card game; also banque .
  • A fund from deposits or contributions, to be used in transacting business; a joint stock or capital.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Let it be no bank or common stock, but every man be master of his own money.
  • (gambling) The sum of money etc. which the dealer or banker has as a fund from which to draw stakes and pay losses.
  • In certain games, such as dominos, a fund of pieces from which the players are allowed to draw.
  • A safe and guaranteed place of storage for and retrieval of important items or goods.
  • A device used to store coins or currency.
  • If you want to buy a bicycle, you need to put the money in your piggy bank .
    Synonyms
    * (controller of a card game) banker
    Derived terms
    * bankability * bankable * bank account * bank agent * bank balance * bank bill * bank book * bank card * bank charges * bank cheque * bank clerk * bank draft * banker * bank giro * bank holiday * bank interest * bank loan * bank manager * banknote * bank of deposit * bank of issue * bank paper * bank rate * bank reserves * bank statement * bank stock * blood bank * bottle bank * break the bank * banking * bankroll * central bank * clearing bank * cry all the way to the bank * databank * food bank * investment bank * * joint-stock bank * laugh all the way to the bank * memory bank * merchant bank * national bank * peat bank * penny bank * piggy bank * pot bank * prime bank * private bank * reserve bank * savings bank * sperm bank * spoil bank * state bank * stopbank * take it to the bank * trustee savings bank * World Bank

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To deal with a bank or financial institution.
  • He banked with Barclays.
  • To put into a bank .
  • I'm going to bank the money.
    Derived terms
    * bank on

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) banke, from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (hydrology) An edge of river, lake, or other watercourse.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Tiber trembled underneath her banks .
  • * 2014 , Ian Jack, " Is this the end of Britishness", The Guardian , 16 September 2014:
  • Just upstream of Dryburgh Abbey, a reproduction of a classical Greek temple stands at the top of a wooded hillock on the river’s north bank .
  • (nautical, hydrology) An elevation, or rising ground, under the sea; a shallow area of shifting sand, gravel, mud, and so forth (for example, a sandbank or mudbank).
  • the banks of Newfoundland
  • (geography) A slope of earth, sand, etc.; an embankment.
  • (aviation) The incline of an aircraft, especially during a turn.
  • (rail transport) An incline, a hill.
  • A mass noun for a quantity of clouds.
  • The bank of clouds on the horizon announced the arrival of the predicted storm front.
  • (mining) The face of the coal at which miners are working.
  • (mining) A deposit of ore or coal, worked by excavations above water level.
  • (mining) The ground at the top of a shaft.
  • Ores are brought to bank .
    Derived terms
    * bank up * clay-bank * cloud bank * embank * embankment * land bank * Left Bank * left-bank * oyster bank * right-bank * river bank * sand bank * sea bank * West Bank

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (aviation) To roll or incline laterally in order to turn.
  • To cause (an aircraft) to bank .
  • To form into a bank or heap, to bank up.
  • to bank sand
  • To cover the embers of a fire with ashes in order to retain heat.
  • To raise a mound or dike about; to enclose, defend, or fortify with a bank; to embank.
  • * Holland
  • banked well with earth
  • (obsolete) To pass by the banks of.
  • (Shakespeare)

    Etymology 3

    (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A row or panel of items stored or grouped together.
  • a bank of switches
    a bank of pay phones
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011
  • , date=December 10 , author=Marc Higginson , title=Bolton 1 - 2 Aston Villa , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Wanderers were finally woken from their slumber when Kevin Davies brought a fine save out of Brad Guzan while, minutes after the restart, Klasnic was blocked out by a bank of Villa defenders.}}
  • A row of keys on a musical keyboard or the equivalent on a typewriter keyboard.
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • (order and arrangement) To arrange or order in a row.
  • Etymology 4

    Probably from (etyl) banc. Of German origin, and akin to English bench.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A bench, as for rowers in a galley; also, a tier of oars.
  • * Waller
  • Placed on their banks , the lusty Trojans sweep / Neptune's smooth face, and cleave the yielding deep.
  • A bench or seat for judges in court.
  • The regular term of a court of law, or the full court sitting to hear arguments upon questions of law, as distinguished from a sitting at nisi prius, or a court held for jury trials. See banc.
  • (Burrill)
  • (archaic, printing) A kind of table used by printers.
  • (music) A bench, or row of keys belonging to a keyboard, as in an organ.
  • (Knight)
  • (uncountable) slang for money
  • Anagrams

    * 1000 English basic words ----

    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

    ----