as in refusing
to show unwillingness to accept, do, engage in, or agree to
she balked at lending him any more money
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for balking (at)
Verb
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And boos rained down when Australia tried to knock the ball around in the back, refusing to engage Canada with forward momentum.—
Joshua Kloke,
New York Times,
11 Oct. 2025 -
That's when the speaker emerged and walked toward the senators, Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly, who then criticized him over refusing to swear in a new Democratic congresswoman from their state during the shutdown.—
Zachary Schermele,
USA Today,
11 Oct. 2025
Verb
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House Speaker Mike Johnson is rejecting calls for Congress to hold a separate vote to pay military service members, who could miss paychecks next week if the government shutdown continues.—
Gabe Whisnant,
MSNBC Newsweek,
8 Oct. 2025
-
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been adamant in rejecting the idea of an independent Palestinian state, and his polices over the years have often worked to undermine the PA, which aspires to govern a future State of Palestine.—
Ivana Kottasová,
CNN Money,
8 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Screening is key Across all ages, colorectal cancer cases and related deaths in the US have been declining for decades, Ng said, attributing that success to improvements in treatment and public health efforts to promote screening.—
Andrea Kane,
CNN Money,
16 Oct. 2025
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Many consumers have started to turn their backs on luxury goods; fed up with a lack of ingenuity, skyrocketing daily expenses, and arguably declining quality, shoppers are thinking twice before splurging on designer items.—
Emma Burleigh,
Fortune,
16 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Wembanyama has been passing up many reasonable 3-point looks in the preseason and only taking wide-open ones.—
Jared Weiss,
New York Times,
17 Oct. 2025
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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
Verb
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But a chat message from Washington to a colleague, released to KUOW and ProPublica last week through a public records request, spells out additional reasons for turning down Daugaard’s proposal.—
Ashley Hiruko,
ProPublica,
6 Oct. 2025
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In Georgia, a neonatal intensive care unit colleague who asked not to be named says parents are turning down Tylenol use for premature babies born with a heart condition that has long been successfully treated with the medication.—
Edith Bracho-Sanchez,
CNN Money,
26 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Mayfield was 8 of 9 for 144 yards throwing over the middle against a defense that lost Warner on the second defensive series.—
Matt Barrows,
New York Times,
14 Oct. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Balking (at).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/balking%20%28at%29. Accessed 19 Oct. 2025.
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