(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.
Shoal
Definition:
(n.) A great multitude assembled; a crowd; a throng; -- said especially of fish; as, a shoal of bass.
(v. i.) To assemble in a multitude; to throng; as, the fishes shoaled about the place.
(a.) Having little depth; shallow; as, shoal water.
(n.) A place where the water of a sea, lake, river, pond, etc., is shallow; a shallow.
(n.) A sandbank or bar which makes the water shoal.
(v. i.) To become shallow; as, the color of the water shows where it shoals.
(v. t.) To cause to become more shallow; to come to a more shallow part of; as, a ship shoals her water by advancing into that which is less deep.
Example Sentences:
(1) China and the Philippines had a tense maritime standoff at a shoal west of the main Philippine island of Luzon early this year.
(2) Among their choicest memories from last year, they tell me, are watching shoals of goldfish swim down their street, and coming home to find Derrick's model boat collection bobbing on the deluge.
(3) Philippine fishing vessels are back in the waters of Scarborough Shoal.
(4) Christian Rynning-Tønnesen, chief executive of Statkraft, the Norwegian power utility that has invested in Sheringham Shoal, said the UK's wind resources and regulatory regime made it the most attractive location in Europe for offshore wind investors.
(5) As additional criteria the shoaling behaviour of the fishes is quantified and evaluated by the system.
(6) The MCS said the best choice now is Cornish mackerel caught by "hand-line", with British, European or Norwegian mackerel that is "pelagic-caught" – caught in shoals – as the best alternative.
(7) The people of Great Britain, with the co-ordination of a shoal of mullet, didn’t just put the Lewisham and Greenwich choir in with a bullet, they made sure to buy enough of Bieber’s own work that his generous spirit would be rewarded with chart spots two, three and five.
(8) But now, of course, everyone's doing it – and if you can really contemplate spending an entire evening out of your painfully short life watching Ocean Colour Scene plod through Moseley Shoals then, honestly, get some help.
(9) Last week, a shoal of headlines further indicated that for our young (and the United Nations defines "young" as under 25), the report card continues to read: "Could do very much better."
(10) Manila regards Second Thomas Shoal, which lies 105 nautical miles (195 km) southwest of the Philippine region of Palawan, as being within its 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone.
(11) Isolated individuals detached from the shoals become immobile from the moment in which they separate from the bacterial group they belonged to ("immunobilization reaction").
(12) Davey attended the opening of the UK's latest offshore windfarm off the north Norfolk coast on Thursday, a £1.2bn projected called Sheringham Shoal .
(13) It was like a horror movie … he kept trying to talk,” Shoals said.
(14) He was widely regarded as having the right experience, deft touch and nous to navigate the shoals and shifting currents of continental politics that would buffet the British ship of state as it left its European berth.
(15) The highly automated system allows to quantify and assess changes in the behaviour patterns of a small shoal of test fishes.
(16) He saw a shoal of porpoises and a stormy petrel skimming over the waves and read "Humboldt's glowing accounts of tropical scenery.
(17) His team has seen humpbacks “lunge feeding”, where the whales rise up under giant shoals and take hundreds of thousands of pounds of fish into their mouths in one gulp, filtering out the seawater through their baleen grills and swallowing the fish.
(18) The film was shot near coral reefs that fringe the tiny Pescador Island where huge shoals of sardines draw sharks to the area.
(19) The Philippine navy is quietly reinforcing the hull and deck of a rusting ship it ran aground on a disputed South China Sea reef in 1999 to stop it breaking apart, determined to hold the shoal as Beijing creates a string of man-made islands nearby.
(20) If there are more bilateral negotiations between China and other claimants then a Trump administration, heavily occupied with North Korea and Isis, won’t be elevating disputes over shoals and reefs in south-east Asia.