Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun likely to stop abruptly and unexpectedly.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The state or quality of being balky.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun likely to stop abruptly and unexpectedly

Etymologies

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Examples

  • He actually called him "more courageous" than Arafat, whose balkiness incensed the president.

    Behind The Breakdown 2008

  • If the administration had any doubts about China's resentment and balkiness, it lost them when Chinese President Jiang Zemin was finally heard from on Tuesday night.

    A Crash In The Clouds 2007

  • "I had to set aside that obsolescent hippie balkiness..."

    Archive 2007-02-01 Ann Althouse 2007

  • Althouse: "I had to set aside that obsolescent hippie balkiness..."

    "I had to set aside that obsolescent hippie balkiness..." Ann Althouse 2007

  • "I had to set aside that obsolescent hippie balkiness..."

    "I had to set aside that obsolescent hippie balkiness..." Ann Althouse 2007

  • I had to set aside that obsolescent hippie balkiness and adopt a pragmatic attitude for the task ahead.

    Archive 2007-03-01 Ann Althouse 2007

  • Roy decided that, without knowing how he did it, he had fortunately succeeded in curing its "balkiness."

    Rival Pitchers of Oakdale Morgan Scott

  • As soon as ever real balkiness is noted, it becomes necessary to avoid the least appearance of contradictoriness, since that increases difficulties.

    Criminal Psychology: a manual for judges, practitioners, and students 1911

  • And I, bein 'a Hammond, with some of the Hammond balkiness in me, I set my foot down as hard as his.

    Keziah Coffin Joseph Crosby Lincoln 1907

  • On the afternoon following the colonel's visit to Mink Run, old Peter, when he came for Phil, was obliged to stay long enough to see the antics of the mechanical mule; and had not that artificial animal suddenly refused to kick, and lapsed into a characteristic balkiness for which there was no apparent remedy, it might have proved difficult to get Phil away.

    The Colonel's Dream 1895

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