balking 1 of 3

adjective

as in frustrating

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balking

2 of 3

noun

as in thwarting

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balking

3 of 3

verb

present participle of balk
as in hampering
to prevent from achieving a goal a young man with big dreams who refused to be balked by the many challenges he faced in making them a reality

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of balking
Verb
Montreal was one of the cities that pulled out of the process after balking at increasing cost estimates. — Ian Nicholas Quillen, Forbes.com, 4 July 2026 Higher education is under siege, with many students and parents balking at high costs. — Washington Post, 10 June 2026 But Democrats are now balking at a long-term extension over their objections to Pulte. — John Parkinson, ABC News, 9 June 2026 GitHub users who have grown accustomed to using its Copilot integration as part of their workflow are balking at cost estimates as the service moves toward per-token billing, rather than per-request billing, Ars Technica reports. — Jon Martindale, PC Magazine, 2 June 2026 Philip Roth and John Updike can be accused of many things, but balking at full-frontal heterosexuality is not one of them. — Becca Rothfeld, New Yorker, 1 June 2026 According to Puck, YouTube may sit out entirely after balking at splitting a five-game package with Netflix. — Bobby Burack Outkick, FOXNews.com, 11 May 2026 Then came the eighth inning, which saw Yankees longman Ryan Yarbrough give up a grand slam to Jo Adell after balking and intentionally walking Trout. — Gary Phillips, New York Daily News, 16 Apr. 2026 But out in the world, shoppers started balking at the cost of a bag of chips. — Wire Tbd, Dallas Morning News, 8 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for balking
  1. frustrating
  2. thwarting
  3. hampering
  4. baffling
  5. crossing
  6. stopping
  7. blocking
  8. deterrence
Adjective
  • There’s nothing more frustrating than booking a trip to paradise only to have your holiday consumed with bad weather.
    — Kaitlyn McInnis, Forbes.com, 23 July 2026
  • In a matter of seconds, the Current’s home victory over the NWSL’s top team turned into a frustrating draw.
    — Daniel Sperry, Kansas City Star, 23 July 2026
Definition of frustrating
Noun
  • The attack’s thwarting was an undeniable success.
    — Shane Harris, The Atlantic, 27 Apr. 2026
  • The thwarting of the Charlotte Hornets, one of the NBA’s fastest squads, is the quintessential White play.
    — Fred Katz, New York Times, 8 Apr. 2026
Definition of thwarting
Verb
  • American regulators’ and politicians’ fear of Chinese tech is hampering business prospects for Chinese flying camera company HOVERAir, its CEO told Semafor.
    — J.D. Capelouto, semafor.com, 14 July 2026
  • Because the injection must then be sent (or pushed) to each specific target, the scale of the attack is limited, hampering mass exploits that hit the Internet at large.
    — Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 8 July 2026
Definition of hampering
Adjective
  • But, a day later, in a move many who served in law enforcement viewed as baffling, the warrant appeared to have been suddenly unsealed while the ongoing investigation into the incident was still underway.
    — Josh Campbell, CNN Money, 19 July 2026
  • If this means something after thousands of years, maybe that’s because the desire for solid ground in a baffling and chaotic world is unchanging.
    — Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic, 17 July 2026
Definition of baffling
Noun
  • The Big Bend Sector has not experienced the high number of border crossings seen in recent years in other areas farther south along the Rio Grande or in Arizona or California, owing to the remote and challenging terrain on both sides of the border.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 22 July 2026
  • Iran struck multiple oil tankers over the past couple days, slowing strait traffic to just a handful of crossings – down from roughly 50 to 70 per day shortly after Iran and the United States signed their Memorandum of Understanding in mid-June.
    — David Goldman, CNN Money, 22 July 2026
Definition of crossing
Verb
  • The brakes, while cable-operated, do an effective job of slowing and stopping the Vienna.
    — William Roberson, Forbes.com, 22 July 2026
  • In Calabria, Costarella of the Civil Protection Department warned that stopping arson would take a societal shift.
    — Max Saltman, CNN Money, 22 July 2026
Definition of stopping
Adjective
  • The winner was the player who avoided being blocked the longest — a blocking game, a category of strategy game where the objective centers on restricting your opponent’s movement.
    — Hanna Wickes, Kansas City Star, 19 Feb. 2026
Definition of blocking
Noun
  • Most defense investors are currently pricing deterrence, ammunition, drones and military readiness.
    — Güney Yıldız, Forbes.com, 20 July 2026
  • Ballistic-missile submarines are built primarily for nuclear deterrence, while attack submarines hunt enemy vessels, gather intelligence, support special forces, and strike targets on land.
    — Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 11 July 2026
Definition of deterrence

Browse Nearby Words

balkiness
balking
balking (at)
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Cite this Entry

“Balking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/balking. Accessed 25 Jul. 2026.

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