balking
  慢行
  Balk, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Balked p. pr. & vb. n. Balking.]
  1. To leave or make balks in. [Obs.]
  2. To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles. [Obs.]
  Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights,
  Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter see.   --Shak.
  3. To omit, miss, or overlook by chance. [Obs.]
  4. To miss intentionally; to avoid; to shun; to refuse; to let go by; to shirk. [Obs. or Obsolescent]
     By reason of the contagion then in London, we balked the inns.    --Evelyn.
     Sick he is, and keeps his bed, and balks his meat.   --Bp. Hall.
  Nor doth he any creature balk,
  But lays on all he meeteth.   --Drayton.
  5. To disappoint; to frustrate; to foil; to baffle; to thwart; as, to balk expectation.
     They shall not balk my entrance.   --Byron.
  balking
       adj : stopping short and refusing to go on; "a balking"; "a balky
             mule"; "a balky customer" [syn: balky]