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.

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In baseball, a pitcher may commit a number of illegal motions or actions which constitute a balk. In games played under Official Baseball Rules, a balk results in a delayed dead ball, and the balk is ignored under specified circumstances. Under other rule sets, notably the National Federation of High Schools (Fed) Baseball Rules in the United States, a balk results in an immediate dead ball. In the event a balk is enforced, the pitch is nullified and each runner is awarded one base while the batter remains at bat with the previous count. The balk rule in Major League Baseball was introduced in 1898.

The first mention of a balk, but with no definition provided, appeared in Alexander Cartwright’s 1845 Knickerbocker Rules. At an 1857 baseball rules convention, a balk was defined as occurring when a pitcher stepped over a line 45 feet away from home plate while delivering a pitch. All baserunners advanced a base.

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