different between balk vs tantalize

English

Etymology 1

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”).

Alternative forms

• baulk

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /b??k/, /b??lk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /b?k/
• (cot–caught merger, Inland Northern American) IPA^(key): /b?k/
• Rhymes: -??k

Noun

balk (plural balks)

1. (agriculture) An uncultivated ridge formed in the open field system, caused by the action of ploughing.
   • 1645, Thomas Fuller, Good Thoughts in Bad Times

     Bad ploughmen, which made balks of such ground.

2. (archaeology) The wall of earth at the edge of an excavation.
3. Beam, crossbeam; squared timber; a tie beam of a house, stretching from wall to wall, especially when laid so as to form a loft, "the balks".
4. A hindrance or disappointment; a check.
   • , "Concealment of Sin"

     a balk to the confidence of the bold undertaker

5. A sudden and obstinate stop.

   Synonym: failure

6. (obsolete) An omission.
7. (sports) A deceptive motion.

   Synonym: feint

   1. (baseball) An illegal motion by the pitcher, intended to deceive a runner.
   2. (badminton) A motion used to deceive the opponent during a serve.
8. (billiards) The area of the table lying behind the line from which the cue ball is initially shot, and from which a ball in hand must be played.
9. (snooker) The area of the table lying behind the baulk line.
10. (fishing) The rope by which fishing nets are fastened together.

Derived terms

• baulk line
• baulk end

Translations

Verb

balk (third-person singular simple present balks, present participle balking, simple past and past participle balked)

1. (archaic) To pass over or by.
2. To omit, miss, or overlook by chance.

   Synonyms: miss, overlook

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

3. (obsolete) To miss intentionally; to avoid.

   Synonyms: avoid, shun, refuse, shirk

   • By reason of the contagion then in London, we balked the nns.

   • Sick he is, and keeps his bed, and balks his meat.

   • 1627, Michael Drayton, Nymphidia

     Nor doth he any creature balk, / But lays on all he meeteth.

4. To stop, check, block.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

5. To stop short and refuse to go on.
   • 1995, Temple Grandin, Thinking in Pictures, page 6:

6. To refuse suddenly.

7. To disappoint; to frustrate.

   Synonyms: frustrate, foil, baffle, thwart

   • 1821, Lord Byron, The Two Foscari

     They shall not balk my entrance.

8. To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition.
9. To leave or make balks in.
10. To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles.

Translations

Etymology 2

Probably from Dutch balken (“to bray, bawl”).

Verb

balk (third-person singular simple present balks, present participle balking, simple past and past participle balked)

1. To indicate to fishermen, by shouts or signals from shore, the direction taken by the shoals of herring.

References

Anagrams

• Blak, blak

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b?lk/
• Hyphenation: balk
• Rhymes: -?lk

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch balke, from Old Dutch *balco, from Proto-Germanic *balkô.

Noun

balk m (plural balken, diminutive balkje n)

1. A beam, solid support.
2. (mathematics) A cuboid.
3. A section, icon etcetera in such rectangular shape.

Derived terms

• balkenbrij
• draagbalk
• staartbalk
• stootbalk

- beam-shaped

• notenbalk
• taakbalk
• zoekbalk

Related terms

• balkon

Descendants

• Afrikaans: balk

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

balk

1. first-person singular present indicative of balken
2. imperative of balken

Swedish

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

balk c

1. a wooden or metal beam
2. (heraldry) a bend (diagonal band)
3. (law) code (major section of legislation)

   brottsbalk

   criminal code

Declension

Synonyms

• bjälke

Derived terms

English

Etymology

From Tantalus (????????) in Greek mythology, who was condemned to Tartarus in the underworld. There, he had to stand for eternity in water that receded from him when he stooped to drink, beneath fruit trees whose branches were always out of reach.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?tænt?la?z/

Verb

tantalize (third-person singular simple present tantalizes, present participle tantalizing, simple past and past participle tantalized)

1. (transitive) to tease (someone) by offering something desirable but keeping it out of reach
2. (transitive) to bait (someone) by showing something desirable but leaving them unsatisfied

Quotations

• 1880 — John Boyle O'Reilly, Moondyne

  They could not bear to be tantalized nor tortured by the splendid delusion.

• 1884 — Edwin Abbott Abbott, Flatland, section 22

  All pleasures palled upon me; all sights tantalized and tempted me to outspoken treason, because I could not but compare what I saw in Two Dimensions with what it really was if seen in Three, and could hardly refrain from making my comparisons aloud.

• “It was—simply amazing,” she repeated abstractedly. “But I swore I wouldn’t tell it and here I am tantalizing you.”

• 1936 — H. P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness, Ch. IX

  As we threaded our dim way through the labyrinth with the aid of map and compass ... we were repeatedly tantalized by the sculptured walls along our route. ... If we had had more films, we would certainly have paused briefly to photograph certain bas-reliefs, but time-consuming hand-copying was clearly out of the question.

Related terms

• tantalizing

Translations