Balk vs. Timber — What's the Difference?

In baseball, a pitcher can commit a number of illegal motions or actions that constitute a balk. Most of these violations involve a pitcher pretending to pitch when they have no intention of doing so.

Trees or wooded land considered as a source of wood.

To stop short and refuse to go on

Wood used as a building material; lumber.

To refuse obstinately or abruptly

A dressed piece of wood, especially a beam in a structure.

(Sports) To make an incomplete or misleading motion.

(Nautical) A rib in a ship's frame.

(Baseball) To make an illegal motion before pitching, allowing one or more base runners to advance one base.

A person considered to have qualities suited for a particular activity

To check or thwart by or as if by an obstacle.

To support or frame with timbers

(Archaic) To let go by; miss.

Used by one cutting down a tree to warn those around that the tree is about to fall.

A hindrance, check, or defeat.

(uncountable) Trees in a forest regarded as a source of wood.

(Sports) An incomplete or misleading motion, especially an illegal move made by a baseball pitcher.

Wood that has been pre-cut and is ready for use in construction.

(Games) One of the spaces between the cushion and the balk line on a billiard table.

(countable) A heavy wooden beam, generally a whole log that has been squared off and used to provide heavy support for something such as a roof.

An unplowed strip of land.

Material for any structure.

A ridge between furrows.

The wooden stock of a rifle or shotgun.

A wooden beam or rafter.

(archaic) A certain quantity of fur skins (as of martens, ermines, sables, etc.) packed between boards; in some cases forty skins, in others one hundred and twenty. Also timmer, timbre.

(agriculture) An uncultivated ridge formed in the open field system, caused by the action of ploughing.

Used by loggers to warn others that a tree being felled is falling.

(archaeology) The wall of earth at the edge of an excavation.

(transitive) To fit with timbers.

Beam, crossbeam; squared timber; a tie beam of a house, stretching from wall to wall, especially when laid so as to form a loft, "the balks".

To construct, frame, build.

A hindrance or disappointment; a check.

To light or land on a tree.

A sudden and obstinate stop.

(obsolete) To make a nest.

(obsolete) An omission.

(transitive) To surmount as a timber does.

(sports) A deceptive motion.

A certain quantity of fur skins, as of martens, ermines, sables, etc., packed between boards; being in some cases forty skins, in others one hundred and twenty; - called also timmer.

(baseball) An illegal motion by the pitcher, intended to deceive a runner.

The crest on a coat of arms.

(badminton) A motion used to deceive the opponent during a serve.

That sort of wood which is proper for buildings or for tools, utensils, furniture, carriages, fences, ships, and the like; - usually said of felled trees, but sometimes of those standing. Cf. Lumber, 3.

(billiards) The area of the table lying behind the line from which the cue ball is initially shot, and from which a ball in hand must be played.

The body, stem, or trunk of a tree.

(snooker) The area of the table lying behind the baulk line.

Fig.: Material for any structure.

(fishing) The rope by which fishing nets are fastened together.

A single piece or squared stick of wood intended for building, or already framed; collectively, the larger pieces or sticks of wood, forming the framework of a house, ship, or other structure, in distinction from the covering or boarding.

(archaic) To pass over or by.

Woods or forest; wooden land.

To omit, miss, or overlook by chance.

A rib, or a curving piece of wood, branching outward from the keel and bending upward in a vertical direction. One timber is composed of several pieces united.

(obsolete) To miss intentionally; to avoid.

To surmount as a timber does.

To stop, check, block.

To furnish with timber; - chiefly used in the past participle.

To stop short and refuse to go on.

To light on a tree.

To refuse suddenly.

To make a nest.

To disappoint; to frustrate.

The wood of trees cut and prepared for use as building material

To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition.

A beam made of wood

To leave or make balks in.

A post made of wood

To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles.

Land that is covered with trees and shrubs

To make a deceptive motion to deceive another player.

(music) the distinctive property of a complex sound (a voice or noise or musical sound);

To indicate to fishermen, by shouts or signals from shore, the direction taken by the shoals of herring.

A ridge of land left unplowed between furrows, or at the end of a field; a piece missed by the plow slipping aside.

A great beam, rafter, or timber; esp., the tie-beam of a house. The loft above was called "the balks."

One of the beams connecting the successive supports of a trestle bridge or bateau bridge.

A hindrance or disappointment; a check.

A sudden and obstinate stop; a failure.

A deceptive gesture of the pitcher, as if to deliver the ball. It is illegal and is penalized by allowing the runners on base to advance one base.

To leave or make balks in.

To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles.

To omit, miss, or overlook by chance.

To miss intentionally; to avoid; to shun; to refuse; to let go by; to shirk.

To disappoint; to frustrate; to foil; to baffle; to thwart; as, to balk expectation.

To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition.

To stop abruptly and stand still obstinately; to jib; to stop short; to swerve; as, the horse balks.

To commit a balk{6}; - of a pitcher.

To indicate to fishermen, by shouts or signals from shore, the direction taken by the shoals of herring.

The area on a billiard table behind the balkline;

Something immaterial that interferes with or delays action or progress

One of several parallel sloping beams that support a roof

An illegal pitching motion while runners are on base

Refuse to comply