[Of uncertain origin; nor can it be determined whether the sb. or the vb. was first in use. The verb was at first a technical term in the game of Cribbage, where it interchanged with balk; hence a conjecture that it may have originated in a mincing pronunciation of the latter. Blount’s assertion that the word is Arabic is altogether erroneous; and the derivation ‘from Meso-Goth. bi-laikan to mock, to deride,’ given in some dicts., belongs to a pre-scientific age.]
1. Cribbage. A balking or spoiling of an adversary’s score in his crib.
1791. J. Williams (A. Pasquin), Cribbage, 63. To assist your own Crib better, or to throw a greater bilk into that of your adversary. Ibid., 65. A King is, in general, a great bilk with almost any other card.
† 2. A statement having nothing in it. Obs.
1633. B. Jonson, Tale Tub, I. i. Tub. He will have the last word, though he talk bilk for ’t. Hugh. Bilk! what’s that? Tub. Why, nothing: a word signifying Nothing; and borrowed here to express nothing.
1681. Blount, Bilk is said to be an Arabick word, and signifies nothing: cribbage-players understand it best.
a. 1733. North, Exam., I. iii. ¶ 139. 213. Bedloe was sworn, and, being asked what he knew against the Prisoner, answered, Nothing … Bedloe was questioned over and over, who still swore the same Bilk. Ibid., I. iii. ¶ 46. The Words in a common Acceptation are a meer Bilk, and signify nothing.
3. A hoax, a deception, a ‘take in.’ ? Obs.
1664. Butler, Hud., II. III. 376. Spells, Which over ev’ry month’s blank-page In th’ Almanack strange Bilks presage.
1694. Congreve, Double Deal., III. x. There he’s secure from danger of a bilk.
a. 1733. North, Lives, I. 260. After this bilk of a discovery was known.
4. A person who bilks or cheats; a cheat.
1790. Sheridan, in Sheridaniana, 109. Johnny W——lks, Johnny W——lks, Thou greatest of bilks.
1836. Marryat, Japhet, ix. The wagoner drove off, cursing him for a bilk.
