(v. t.) To miss intentionally; to avoid; to shun; to refuse; to let go by; to shirk.
(v. i.) A ridge of land left unplowed between furrows, or at the end of a field; a piece missed by the plow slipping aside.
(v. i.) A great beam, rafter, or timber; esp., the tie-beam of a house. The loft above was called "the balks."
(v. i.) One of the beams connecting the successive supports of a trestle bridge or bateau bridge.
(v. i.) A hindrance or disappointment; a check.
(v. i.) A sudden and obstinate stop; a failure.
(v. i.) A deceptive gesture of the pitcher, as if to deliver the ball.
(v. t.) To leave or make balks in.
(v. t.) To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles.
(v. t.) To disappoint; to frustrate; to foil; to baffle; to /hwart; as, to balk expectation.
(v. i.) To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition.
(v. i.) To stop abruptly and stand still obstinately; to jib; to stop short; to swerve; as, the horse balks.
(v. i.) To indicate to fishermen, by shouts or signals from shore, the direction taken by the shoals of herring.
Example Sentences:
(1) Since the first is balked by the obstacle of deficit reduction, emphasis has turned to the second.
(2) The US and its allies are balking at Iranian demands for all UN sanctions to be lifted at the start of a deal.
(3) The eastern European nations balked at the “emergency brake” on benefits to EU migrants.
(4) Critics balk at the original asking price of $399, but the initial stock sells out in five hours.
(5) In recent years, though, a number of his near comtemporaries – notably Leonard Cohen and Bruce Springsteen – have been revitalised by taking on the kind of touring schedules that many a younger artist might balk at.
(6) To attract support from moderate Republicans who balked at the plan, an additional $8bn was included over five years to fund so-called high-risk pools that would help subsidize people with preexisting conditions.. Health policy experts have argued the fix is insufficient.
(7) One government source said: "Patrick McLoughlin is not balking at these ideas, which are interesting.
(8) Her work, which tackles the problems women face in Egypt and across the world, has always attracted outrage, but she never seems to have balked at this; she has continued to address controversial issues such as prostitution, domestic violence and religious fundamentalism in her writing.
(9) Young parents who have seen their tax credits cut and wages stagnate might balk at George Osborne’s repeated claims that “the economic plan is working”.
(10) Duration of treadmill exercise on a Balke treadmill protocol increased similarly in the two groups, 62% in the older group (from 8.9 to 14.3 minutes) and 40% in the younger group (from 12.2 to 17.1 minutes) (p = NS).
(11) The Wigan Athletic chairman, Dave Whelan , could step in to save jobs at his stricken former company JJB Sports, which is searching for a buyer after shareholders balked at pumping more cash into the troubled chain.
(12) Republicans in the house have already balked at the $50bn in immediate relief for Sandy that went to the house on Tuesday.
(13) It has been known for weeks that the US balked at Germany’s demand for a no-spy agreement, in part because of the precedent it would set for other countries that might also ask not to be spied on, and in part because Germany , which has limited spy capabilities, had nothing to offer in trade.
(14) Distribution of mitoses and dead hepatocytes in the hepatic balk was investigated.
(15) The new service unveiled on Friday will allow viewers who balk at a monthly Sky pay-TV subscription to access on-demand content including the BBC iPlayer, Facebook and Sky News.
(16) I think we balk at commercialising babies for the same reason that there's no provision under law for financial compensation if you lose a loved one.
(17) The misery of the left was, in the 1980s, matched by the triumphalism of the free marketeers, who had transformed Britain beyond many of their wildest ambitions, and began to balk at the restraints put on their dreams by the European project.
(18) Any Moldy Peach diehards balking at the idea of Green duetting with someone other than Dawson are missing out, though: this record sounds as though he and Shapiro have known each other for ever.
(19) Many countries, including major ones, won’t be willing to make their mitigation commitment legally binding at the international level, and once some balk, the premise of a legal form applicable to all unravels,” he said.
(20) Balking as never before at being the EU's cashpoint, Germany has been the main obstacle, although others have also hidden behind Berlin and quietly egged it on.
Handicap
Definition:
(n.) An allowance of a certain amount of time or distance in starting, granted in a race to the competitor possessing inferior advantages; or an additional weight or other hindrance imposed upon the one possessing superior advantages, in order to equalize, as much as possible, the chances of success; as, the handicap was five seconds, or ten pounds, and the like.
(n.) A race, for horses or men, or any contest of agility, strength, or skill, in which there is an allowance of time, distance, weight, or other advantage, to equalize the chances of the competitors.
(n.) An old game at cards.
(v. t.) To encumber with a handicap in any contest; hence, in general, to place at disadvantage; as, the candidate was heavily handicapped.
Example Sentences:
(1) We studied the effects of the localisation and size of ischemic brain infarcts and the influence of potential covariates (gender, age, time since infarction, physical handicap, cognitive impairment, aphasia, cortical atrophy and ventricular size) on 'post-stroke depression'.
(2) In this way they offer the doctor the chance of preventing genetic handicaps that cannot be obtained by natural reproduction, and that therefore should be used.
(3) An age- and education-matched group of women with no family history of FXS was asked to predict the seriousness of problems they might encounter were they to bear a child with a handicapping condition.
(4) However, the provision of dental care showed significant differences, with the handicapped children receiving less restorative treatment.
(5) A questionnaire was presented to 2009 18--19 year old military recruitment candidates which enabled assessment of antipathy towards patients with severe acne vulgaris, the occupational handicap associated with severe acne and subjective inhibitions in acne patients.
(6) Against the current climate of hospital closure programmes and community care, attitudes to caregiving were examined in three groups of carers, namely mothers caring for a mentally handicapped child, mothers caring for a mentally handicapped adult and daughters caring for a parent with dementia.
(7) This BOA technique was used to test the hearing of 82 profoundly involved handicapped children.
(8) The demonstration of these abnormalities may advance the diagnosis of the visual handicap and may facilitate early adjustment of developmental stimulation.
(9) We present implications for the early prediction of handicapping conditions and for further research.
(10) Questionnaires assessing symptoms, disability and handicap, predisposition to anxiety, and current anxiety and depression were completed by 127 people attending neuro-otology clinics with a major complaint of vertigo or dysequilibrium.
(11) The findings are based on interviews from people who define themselves as transport handicapped.
(12) The profile of the respondents revealed that 68% work in general nurse courses, 18% in mental health, 8% in mental handicap and 6% in child care.
(13) An observational study was made of 1-2-year-old children, and of mentally handicapped children functioning at a similar level, to determine the extent to which they involved themselves in play with toys and other objects and the extent to which their day was "empty".
(14) Individually adapted, functional office furniture is not only capable of making physically or sensorily handicapped persons more independent but also enhances their performance.
(15) Development was rapid during the three years following diagnosis, as was shown by the annual number of attacks of acute spinal pain, months of functional handicap and vertebral compression fractures, as well as by changes in size and the two vertebral radiologic indices used.
(16) Patterns previously described for older handicapped children can therefore be recognized as early as the second year of life.
(17) Personal attendants (welfare assistants) could be allocated to each of the more severely handicapped children.
(18) Our ability to design effective countermeasures to orthostatic circulatory intolerance is severely handicapped by our inadequate knowledge of the basic hemodynamic events incident to normal and abnormal orthostatic tolerance.
(19) Although younger, the CF patients tended to be more obstructed in their lungs and more handicapped than the patients suffering from the immotile-cilia syndrome.
(20) The treatment of the handicapped is discussed in the light of the alterations by which they are most commonly afflicted.