(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.
Retard
Definition:
(v. t.) To keep delaying; to continue to hinder; to prevent from progress; to render more slow in progress; to impede; to hinder; as, to retard the march of an army; to retard the motion of a ship; -- opposed to accelerate.
(v. t.) To put off; to postpone; as, to retard the attacks of old age; to retard a rupture between nations.
(v. i.) To stay back.
(n.) Retardation; delay.
Example Sentences:
(1) It is followed by rapid neurobehavioral deterioration in late infancy or early childhood, a developmental arrest, plateauing, and then either a course of retarded development or continued deterioration.
(2) Low birth weight, short stature, and mental retardation were common features in the four known patients with r(8).
(3) It was found that preterm infants (delivered before 38 weeks of gestation) had nine times the early neonatal mortality of term infants, irrespective of growth retardation patterns.
(4) Instead of later renal failure and, of course, mental retardation, it was the histological features of the fetus eyes which permit to diagnose and exhibit both congenital cataract and irido-corneal angle dysgenesis.
(5) In the interim, sonographic studies during pregnancy in women at risk for AIDS may be helpful in identifying fetal intrauterine growth retardation and may help raise our level of suspicion for congenital AIDS.
(6) Three types of responses were observed: group A, no inhibition of gastric acid secretion occurred in 17 (40%) ulcer patients and in three (18%) controls (p less than 0.05); group B, inhibition of gastric acidity occurred in seven (16%) ulcer patients and in 12 (71%) controls (p less than 0.05), and group C, retarded gastric acid inhibition occurred in 19 (44%) duodenal ulcer patients and in 2 (12%) controls (p less than 0.05).
(7) This new way of thinking is reflected in the 1992 AAMR definition of what mental retardation is (Luckasson et al., 1992).
(8) Confirmation of the striking correlation between increased urinary ammonia and lowered neonatal ponderal index may afford a simple test for the identification of nutrient-related growth retardation.
(9) Governmental officials as well as medical scientists in Taiwan have worked hard in recent years to develop and to implement various measures, such as prenatal diagnosis and neonatal screening, to lower the incidence of hereditary diseases and mental retardation in the population.
(10) A lower than normal percentage of REM sleep in these patients was consistent with their retarded intellectual development, which supports current thinking that REM sleep may be a sensitive index of brain function integrity.
(11) Bone age has been analyzed mixed-longitudinally in a subsample of 370 patients (660 observations) and showed a slight retardation at all ages between 6 and 13 yr. Development of pubic hair of 91 subjects analyzed cross-sectionally was definitely retarded when compared to adequate reference data.
(12) The results also suggest that both alkali metals most probably have been delivered to the suckling pups and some of their toxic effect was retarded.
(13) However, patients can be taught how to retard the onset of wrinkles by avoiding unprotected sun exposure, unnecessary facial movements, and certain sleeping positions.
(14) Between-group responsivity differences suggest developmental retardation in term (38-42 weeks) SGA newborns, but the faster SGA latencies may reflect 'induced' acceleration in auditory neurophysiologic function.
(15) Fifty-one severely retarded adults were taught a difficult visual discrimination in an assembly task by one of three training techniques: (a) adding and reducing large cue differences on the relevant-shape dimension; (b) adding and fading a redundant-color dimension; or (c) a combination of the two techniques.
(16) Thus, the patient with asymptomatic bacteriuria and a positive FA test is at greater risk of delivering an intrauterine growth-retarded infant.
(17) Diffusional anisotropy of water protons, induced by nonrandom, directional barriers which hinder or retard water motion, is measurable by MRI.
(18) Partial duplication of the proximal part of the long arm of chromosome 5, on the other hand, is associated mainly with musculoskeletal abnormalities including muscle hypotrophy and hypotonia, scoliosis, lordosis, pectus carinatum, cubitus valgus, and genu valgum, in addition to psychomotor retardation.
(19) In contrast, the same concentration of isopropanol produced narcosis in the dams, retarded body-weight gain and reduced the feed intake.
(20) A lysosomal membrane labilizer, vitamin A, exacerbated the cartilage pathology, whereas a stabilizer, cortisone, retarded it.