Other forms: balked, balks, balking
To balk is to refuse to go on with something. Balk at the price, balked at the idea, balk at the last moment.
It always takes at and describes stopping short rather than declining in advance, which is why it is used of horses refusing a jump. Britain also spells it baulk, and in baseball a balk is a named illegal move by a pitcher.
1verbbalkTo refuse to go on with something.
“The horse balked at the high fence and refused to jump.”
balk is a refusing.
Also accepted in games: baulk
Old English balca means a ridge or beam, and the sense of an obstacle gave the verb.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰelǵ-
Proto-Germanic
*balkô
Old Norse
bálkr — partition, ridge of land
Old English
balca
Middle English
balke
English, today
balk
From Middle English balke, from Old English balca, either from or influenced by Old Norse bálkr (“partition, ridge of land”), from Proto-Germanic balkô. Cognate with Dutch balk (“balk”), German Balken (“balk”), Italian balcone (“balcony”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA