Thesaurus.com
Dictionary.com
Definitions

balky

[baw-kee] / ˈbɔ ki /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

He’s got a balky knee, and now a painful biceps, and the Dodgers have kept him off the mound for a moment, but what happens in October?

From Los Angeles Times Aug. 2, 2026

I jury-rigged a heating element for our Kenmore refrigerator’s balky ice-maker water-feed tube.

From The Wall Street Journal May 2, 2026

There’s an argument to be made that the feds could believe they have a balky case and want to bloody up Adams in the public eye ahead of a trial.

From Slate Sep. 12, 2024

The original May 6 launch was scuttled hours before takeoff due to a balky rocket valve.

From Los Angeles Times May 22, 2024

After quite a struggle and a tug of war with a balky zipper, we finally got the suits on, and our helmets and gloves locked in place.

From "Flying to the Moon: An Astronaut's Story" by Michael Collins

After dozens of false starts, he wants to get two of his balkier clients to say yes to a house he shows them.

From Time Magazine Archive

Carter may also find the Federal Reserve balkier than before.

From Time Magazine Archive

I was seated at my typewriter and the book was balkier than usual, and I wished that the clumper at the door would go away.

From Dawn O'Hara, the Girl Who Laughed by Edna Ferber

By the afternoon, three horses remained — the toughest and balkiest to get into trailers.

From Los Angeles Times Dec. 6, 2017

It was the balkiest Yankee machine since Manager Joe McCarthy got behind the steering wheel nine years ago.

From Time Magazine Archive

Joe made more news as baseball's balkiest holdout.

From Time Magazine Archive

Thus will begin the second session of the 95th Congress, one of the boldest and balkiest in memory.

From Time Magazine Archive

All those stately equipages were good, and the one that fell to us mounted the hill to our hotel by a grade so insinuating that the balkiest horse in Frascati could hardly have suspected it.

From Roman Holidays, and Others by William Dean Howells




Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Dictionary.com's Learning Companion

Go beyond just looking up words.
Remember them forever with VocabTrainer.

Start training