Forms: 1 balca, balc, 3–7 balke, 5–7 baulke, 6 balcke, 7–9 baulk (north. dial. bauk, bawk), 3– balk. [Common Teutonic, presenting several variant stems, with partial differentiation of sense: OE. balca ridge, bank = OFris. balca, OS. balco, MDu. balke, balc, Du. balk, OHG. balcho, balco, MHG. balke, G. balkon, ‘beam, trabs,’ also OE. bolca ‘gangway of a ship,’ and ON. bjalki (Sw. biælke, bielke, Da. bjelke) ‘beam,’ corresponding respectively to an OTeut. ablaut-series *balkon-, *bolkon-, *belkon-; also ON. bálkr, bǫlkr, ‘beam, bar, partition, division,’ OSw. balker, bolker, Sw. balk ‘beam, balk, partition, section of a law’:—OTeut. *balku-z. OE. balc ‘porca’ (see 3), is either an error for balca, or = bálkr. The relation of OE. bælc ‘covering (? flooring)’ is doubtful. The original sense was perh. ‘bar’; cf. L. suf-fla(g)men, from Aryan *bhalg-, bhlag-. The OE. balca (balc) and ON. bálkr appear to be combined in the ME.; whether the latter distinguished balke and balk, the evidence does not show. Balk is the analogous spelling: cf. stalk, talk, walk, etc.; but baulk is frequent, and in Billiards (sense 9) the prevailing spelling.]
I. A ridge generally, a dividing ridge; a bar.
† 1. A ridge, heap or mound upon the ground; e.g., a grave-mound. Obs.
c. 835. K. Ælfred, Boeth., xvi. § 2. Þa het he hí bindan, and on balcan leʓan.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. Poems, A. 62. My body on balke þer bod in sweuen.
† 2. A dividing ridge (of land); an isthmus; a bar of sand, etc. Obs.
1538. Leland, Itin., V. 16. A litle Balk of Sand cast up, the wich at low waters prohibitih the Se to cum about.
1565. Golding, Ovid’s Met., VI. (1593), 140. The narrow balke at which two seas do meete at hand. Ibid., VII. 164. The balcke that makes the strait divorce Between the seas Ionian and Aegean.
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., IV. xi. A border-city these two coasts removing; Which, like a balk … Disparts the terms of anger and of loving.
II. A ridge left in plowing; a miss, slip.
3. A ridge between two furrows (L. porca), or a strip of ground left unplowed as a boundary line between two plowed portions.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., in Wright, Voc. (W.), 147. Porca, balc.
a. 1300. W. de Biblesw., in Wright, Voc., 159. Vert choral, a grene balke.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. IX. 114. Dykers and deluers diggeden vp þe balkes.
1483. Cath. Angl., 19/1. Balke betwyx twa furris; creb(r)o, porca.
1562. Bulleyn, Bk. Simples, 16 b. Euery mere and balke is full of it [Scabios] in June.
1563. Homilies, III. Rogat. Week, IV. (1859), 498. How covetous men nowe a dayes plow vp so nigh the common balkes and walkes.
1576. Gascoigne, Steele Glas (Arb.), 78. Earing vp the balks that part their bounds.
1604. Breton, Pass. Sheph., 13. The merrie countrie lad, Who upon a faire greene balk May at pleasure sit and walke.
1725. A. Ramsay, Gent. Sheph., V. iii. Last night I met him on a bawk, Whare yellow corn was growing.
1799. J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 196. These earthern boundaries (baulks) are wearing fast out.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., II. 104. He takes his rambles … Down narrow balks that intersect the fields.
4. A ridge or piece left unplowed by accident or carelessness; a piece missed in plowing. (Often in phrase to make a balk or balks.)
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., II. 15. The balke, that thai calle, unered lande And overheled, beholde that there be noon.
c. 1430. Lydg., Bochas, VII. viii b (1554), 172. Making no balkes, ye plough was truely hold.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 7. If he goo to the ploughe, and loke backwarde, he seeth not, whether the plough … make a balke.
1647. Fuller, Good Th. in Worse T., Observ. xvi. The husbandman may dart forth an ejaculation, and not make a balk the more.
a. 1703. Burkitt, On N. T., Luke ix. 62. He that ploughs must keep on, and make no balks.
1840. Penny Cycl., XVIII. 277/2. The leaving of balks is a great fault, and is owing to … the ploughman not holding his plough upright.
b. Hence fig., esp. in To make a balk of good ground: to waste or throw away a good chance.
1605. Camden, Rem. (1637), 302. Make hay while sunne shines. Make not a balke of good ground.
1640. Fuller, Joseph’s Coat (1867), 35. The rich Corinthians, in not inviting the poor, made balks of good ground.
a. 1652. Brome, New Acad., III. i. Your plow makes vile baulkes of my money.
1857. Bohn’s Handbk. Prov., 69. Make not balks of good ground.
† 5. fig. A slip, mistake, a blunder. To make a balk: to blunder, go wrong. Obs.
c. 1430. Hymns to Virg. (1867), 92. Þouȝ a ȝong man make a balke, Ȝit take to þi mynde reuertere.
1661. Annand, Panem Quotid., 18. They … make such bawlks in their prayer.
1717. Tudway, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., II. 435, IV. 311. Bentley’s baulks and blunders about the king’s reception.
† 6. fig. An omission, an exception. Obs. or dial.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., VI. xi. 16. They fall to strokes … Not sparing wight, ne leaving any balke.
1666. Bunyan, Grace Ab., ¶ 315. But then I have asked why they made baulks? why they did salute the most handsome and let the ill favoured go?
1775. J. Collier, Tim Bobbin, 60. I’r so keen bitt’n I made no bawks at o hay seed.
III. A ridge in one’s path; A stumbling-block, check; a term in billiards.
† 7. A ridge in the way, over which one may stumble; a stumbling-block, obstacle. Obs.
1549. Latimer, Serm. bef. Edw. VI. (1869), 36. He wold not walke in by-walkes, where are many balkes.
1562. Sternhold & H., Ps. xviii. 35. So that my feete shall neuer slip, Nor stumble at a balke.
1747. Hooson, Miner’s Dict., N j. How many Baulks and Obstructions … happen by the way.
8. fig. a. A hindrance, check or defeat.
1660. T. M., Hist. Indep., IV. 78. As a balk to which the Committee of safety declared … that they had transmitted a great part of a form of government [etc.].
a. 1716. South, Serm., VI. 311 (T.). There cannot be a greater balk to the tempter.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 341. This was a balk to them and put a damp to their new projects.
1823. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. xxi. (1865), 162. It would be some balk to the spirit of conversation if you knew.
b. A disappointment.
1733. Swift, Wks. (1745), VIII. 122. Poor Tom has got a plaguy baulk.
1741. Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. VIII. 244. It was a great baulk to her, that you did not comply with my request.
9. transf. The part of a billiard table behind a transverse line (the ‘baulk-line’) near one end, within the D or half-circle of which a player whose ball is in hand must place it to make his stroke.
(As, in billiards, such player must play out from baulk, and can strike only indirectly at a ball lying within it, the original sense of the term was perhaps that of ‘check.’)
1800. Hoyle’s Games, 250. When the striker’s and the red ball are within the baulk, he is not obliged to pass the ball.
1839. E. Kentfield, Billiards, 3. At the lower end of the table is a line technically termed the Baulk Line.
1874. Whyte-Melville, Uncle John, ix. She strung to begin—won—and put her ball in balk.
b. To make a baulk: to bring one’s own and the red ball within the baulk, when the opponent’s ball is in hand.
1839. E. Kentfield, Billiards, 24. Directions for making what are termed baulks.
IV. A beam of wood.
10. A roughly squared beam of timber; sometimes used technically to designate Baltic timber, which is roughly dressed before shipment.
c. 1300. Cursor M., 8783. Þe balk þat mast þe werk suld bind Þai soght, and noþer-quar cuth find.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Reeves Prol., 66. He can wel in myn eye see a stalke, But in his owne he can nought seen a balke.
1483. Cath. Angl., 19/1. Balke of a howse, trabs.
1662. Pepys, Diary, 23 June. Deales, spars, and bulks.
1666. Lond. Gaz., No. 35/4. Laden with Oaken and Firr Balks.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 157. Bauk, a piece of Fir unslit, from four to ten inches square.
1734. Builder’s Dict., Balks … so some call great pieces of Timber coming from beyond Seas by Floats.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 38. A course of squared oak balks.
1881. Mechanic, § 136. The strongest timber obtainable … is that which is sawn out of baulks.
1884. Timber Tr. Jrnl., 14 June, 417/3. Danzig fir balks.
11. A tie-beam of a house, stretching from wall to wall. In old one-story houses these were often exposed and used for hanging or placing articles on, or laid with boards so as to form a loft, called ‘the balks.’ Now chiefly north.
a. 1300. W. de Biblesw., in Wright, Voc., 170. Les trayes (gloss balkes).
c. 1386. Chaucer, Miller’s T., 440. Laddres thre To clymben by the ronges … Unto the tubbes hangyng in the balkes.
1535. Coverdale, Zeph. ii. 14. Foules shal synge in the wyndowes and rauens shal syt vpon the balckes.
1565. Golding, Ovid’s Met., VIII. (1593), 202. A flitch of restie bacon from the balke made blacke with smoke.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (1856), 53. When wee have brought up the farre roomestead as high as the balke.
1691. Ray, N. Countr. Wds., 5. The Balk or Bawk, the Summer-beam or Dorman.
c. 1760. ? Mickle, Nae Luck about the Hoose. There’s twa fat hens upon the bauk.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. I. xii. (D.). The stiffest balk bends more or less; all joists creak.
12. A cross-beam or bar in a chimney or kiln.
1432. Test. Ebor. (1855), II. 23. Unum instrumentum ferreum in camino aulæ, vocatum balk.
a. 1600[?]. Felon Sow of Rokeby. The sew was in the kiln hole down As they were on the balke aboon.
13. The beam of a balance. Obs. exc. dial.
1399. Fabric Rolls Yk. Minstr., in Linc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), I balke ferri cum les scales et ponderibus.
1571. Wills & Inv. N. C. (1855), II. 364. Payre of great skales wth ye balk.
1671. Flavel, Fount. Life, iv. 10. The Balk of a Balance, to weigh Christ’s excellency.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm., xxiii. (1858), 509. To give … his customers ‘the cast of the baulk.’
Sc. Proverb, The young lamb comes as often to the bauk as the auld ewe.
14. Comb. † balk-line, ? a line hanging from the cross-beams; † balk-staff, a quarter-staff; balk-yard, a timber-yard.
c. 1400. Beryn, 153. He berith a Bal[k]staff quod the toon, and els a rakis ende.
1506. in Blomefield, Norfolk, V. 1670. A new balk-line to the star, and rysing star, viijd.
1664. Cotton, Scarron., I. (1715), 10. Balk-Staves and Cudgels, Pikes and Truncheons.
1674. Ray, N. Countr. Wds., 4. Balk-staff, a Quarter-staff, a great Staff like a Pole or Beam.
1823. Lett., in Polwhele, Trad. & Recoll. (1826), II. 770. Straying into a balk-yard fell over a beam of timber.
V. In fishing. [The connection of 16 with the other senses is doubtful.]
15. dial. A set of stout stakes surrounded by netting or wicker work for catching fish.
1836. Sir G. Head, Home Tour, 430. I observed some fish ‘balks’ on the sands…. The fish are taken on the sand within the balk at low water.
16. The stout rope at the top of fishing nets by which they are fastened one to another in a ‘fleet.’ (In Cornw. balch.)
1847. H. Miller, First. Impr., i. 3. Away from wave-top to wave-top, like the cork baulk of a fisherman’s net afloat on the swell.
1880. E. Cornw. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Balch, a stout cord used for the head-line of a fishing net.
