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Impediment vs Balk - What's the difference?

impediment | balk |

As nouns the difference between impediment and balk

is that impediment is a hindrance; that which impedes or hinders progress 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.

impediment

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A hindrance; that which impedes or hinders progress.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Thus far into the bowels of the land / Have we marched on without impediment .
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year=1818 , author=Mary Shelley , title=Frankenstein , chapter=2 citation , passage=I had gazed upon the fortifications and impediments that seemed to keep human beings from entering the citadel of nature, and rashly and ignorantly I had repined.}}
    Working in a noisy factory left him with a slight hearing impediment .
  • (chiefly, in the plural) Baggage, especially that of an army; impedimenta
  • Synonyms

    * hindrance * obstruction * obstacle * See also

    References

    *

    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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