This week’s theme
Nouning verbs and verbing nouns

This week’s words
woodshed
balk
festoon
bivouac
savvy

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(bawk)

MEANING:

noun:	1. A check or hindrance.
	2. A defeat or disappointment.
	3. A beam or rafter.
	4. A ridge; an unplowed strip of land between furrows.
verb intr.:	To stop, hesitate, or refuse to proceed.
verb tr.:	To thwart or hinder.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Old English balca (ridge, bank). Earliest documented use, noun: 885, verb: 1393.

USAGE:

“Nothing, agreed, is alien to love
When pure desire has overflowed its baulks.”
Robert Graves; Collected Poems; Cassell; 1965.

“She balked at the bedroom door, digging in her heels. ‘It’s just a bedroom, Katie,’ he said. ‘We have to pass through it to get to the bathroom where my first aid supplies are.’”
Lori Wilde; A Wedding for Christmas; Avon; 2016.

See more usage examples of balk in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: