as in to refuse
to show unwillingness to accept, do, engage in, or agree to
she balked at lending him any more money
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for balk (at)
Verb
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My adoptive parents had refused to allow contact or send pictures, and didn’t tell me about her attempt to communicate with us for years after the fact.—
Nicole Chung,
The Atlantic,
2 Oct. 2025 -
Federal officials refused to return him, accusing him of being a gang member, despite judges’ orders that he should be sent back to the United States.—
Eduardo Cuevas,
USA Today,
2 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The letter also called for the return of mandatory standardized testing in university admissions and for universities to report the anonymous scores and grades of accepted and rejected students.—
Helen Rummel,
AZCentral.com,
2 Oct. 2025
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In a June ruling, a three-judge Kansas Court of Appeals panel rejected Kobach’s arguments in no uncertain terms.—
Matthew Kelly,
Kansas City Star,
2 Oct. 2025
Verb
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And some items, though limited, have seen prices decline, including Graeter’s Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip ice cream, Montgomery Inn’s full rack of ribs, Pringles potato chips and Red and Blue Bicycle Playing cards (though a standard deck has risen 11% in line with the overall index.—
Alexander Coolidge,
Cincinnati Enquirer,
3 Oct. 2025
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Netflix has declined to comment on Musk’s campaign.—
Todd Spangler,
Variety,
2 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Science scores were also mixed between grades, with 5th graders passing up 1%, 8th graders down 2% and high schoolers down 3%.—
Grace Zokovitch,
Boston Herald,
30 Sep. 2025
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For Stolarz, the chance at financial certainty for a career that began way back in 2012, when he was drafted in the second round by the Philadelphia Flyers, was too much to pass up.—
Jonas Siegel,
New York Times,
30 Sep. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Balk (at).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/balk%20%28at%29. Accessed 7 Oct. 2025.
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