walk

A horse walking.

Meanings

Verb

  • To move on the feet by alternately setting each foot (or pair or group of feet, in the case of animals with four or more feet) forward, with at least one foot on the ground at all times. Compare run.
  • To "walk free", i.e. to win, or avoid, a criminal court case, particularly when actually guilty.
  • Of an object, to go missing or be stolen.
  • To walk off the field, as if given out, after the fielding side appeals and before the umpire has ruled; done as a matter of sportsmanship when the batsman believes he is out.
  • To travel (a distance) by walking.
  • To take for a walk or accompany on a walk.
  • To allow a batter to reach base by pitching four balls.
  • To move something by shifting between two positions, as if it were walking.
  • To full; to beat cloth to give it the consistency of felt.
  • To traverse by walking (or analogous gradual movement).
  • To operate the left and right throttles of (an aircraft) in alternation.
  • To leave, resign.
  • To push (a vehicle) alongside oneself as one walks.
  • To behave; to pursue a course of life; to conduct oneself.
  • To be stirring; to be abroad; to go restlessly about; said of things or persons expected to remain quiet, such as a sleeping person, or the spirit of a dead person.
  • To be in motion; to act; to move.
  • To put, keep, or train (a puppy) in a walk, or training area for dogfighting.
  • To move a guest to another hotel if their confirmed reservation is not available on day of check-in.

Noun

  • A trip made by walking.
  • A distance walked.
  • An Olympic Games track event requiring that the heel of the leading foot touch the ground before the toe of the trailing foot leaves the ground.
  • A manner of walking; a person's style of walking.
  • A path, sidewalk/pavement or other maintained place on which to walk.
  • A person's conduct or course in life.
  • A situation where all players fold to the big blind, as their first action (instead of calling or raising), once they get their cards.
  • An award of first base to a batter following four balls being thrown by the pitcher; known in the rules as a "base on balls".
  • In coffee, coconut, and other plantations, the space between them.
  • An area of an estate planted with fruit-bearing trees.
  • A place for keeping and training puppies for dogfighting.
  • An enclosed area in which a gamecock is confined to prepare him for fighting.
  • A sequence of alternating vertices and edges, where each edge's endpoints are the preceding and following vertices in the sequence.
  • Something very easily accomplished; a walk in the park.
  • A cheque drawn on a bank that was not a member of the London Clearing and whose sort code was allocated on a one-off basis; they had to be "walked" (hand-delivered by messengers).

Related

Similar words

Opposite words

Narrower meaning words

Origin

  • From Middle English walken, from Old English wealcan, ġewealcan; and Middle English walkien, from Old English wealcian; both from Proto-Germanic *walkaną, *walkōną, from Proto-Indo-European *walg-. Cognate with Scots walk, Saterland Frisian walkje, West Frisian swalkje, Dutch walken, Dutch zwalken, German walken, Danish valke, Latin valgus, Sanskrit वल्गति ("amble, bound, leap, dance"). More at vagrant and whelk. Doublet of waulk.
  • From Middle English walk, walke, walc, from Old English *wealc (as in Old English wealcspinl) and ġewealc, from Proto-Germanic *walką. Cognate with Icelandic válk.

Modern English dictionary

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