Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Balk \Balk\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Balked} (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Balking}.] [From {Balk} a beam; orig. to put a balk or beam
   in one's way, in order to stop or hinder. Cf., for sense 2,
   AS. on balcan legan to lay in heaps.]
   1. To leave or make balks in. [Obs.] --Gower.

   2. To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles. [Obs.]

            Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights,
            Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter see.
                                                  --Shak.

   3. To omit, miss, or overlook by chance. [Obs.]

   4. To miss intentionally; to avoid; to shun; to refuse; to
      let go by; to shirk. [Obs. or Obsolescent]

            By reason of the contagion then in London, we balked
            the ?nns.                             --Evelyn.

            Sick he is, and keeps his bed, and balks his meat.
                                                  --Bp. Hall.

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

   5. To disappoint; to frustrate; to foil; to baffle; to
      ?hwart; as, to balk expectation.

            They shall not balk my entrance.      --Byron.

Source : WordNet®

balking
     adj : stopping short and refusing to go on; "a balking"; "a balky
           mule"; "a balky customer" [syn: {balky}]