walk

English Online Dictionary. What means walk‎? What does walk mean?

English

Pronunciation

• UK
  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: wôk, IPA^(key): /wɔːk/
  • (Standard Southern British) IPA^(key): /woːk/
• (US) enPR: wôk, IPA^(key): /wɔk/
• (cot–caught merger) enPR: wäk, IPA^(key): /wɑk/
• Homophone: wok (cot–caught merger)
• Rhymes: -ɔːk

Etymology 1

From Middle English walken (“to move, walk, roll, turn, revolve, toss”), a conflation of Old English wealcan (“to move round, revolve, roll, turn, toss”) (ġewealcan (“to go, traverse”)) and Old English wealcian (“to curl, roll up”); both from Proto-West Germanic *walkan, from Proto-Germanic *walkaną, *walkōną (“to twist, turn, roll about, full”), from Proto-Indo-European *walg- (“to twist, turn, move”).

Cognate with Scots walk (“to walk”), Saterland Frisian walkje (“to full; drum; flex; mill”), West Frisian swalkje (“to wander, roam”), Dutch walken (“to full, work hair or felt”), Dutch zwalken (“to wander about”), German walken (“to flex, full, mill, drum”), Danish valke (“to waulk, full”), Latin valgus (“bandy-legged, bow-legged”), Sanskrit वल्गति (valgati, “amble, bound, leap, dance”). More at vagrant and whelk. Doublet of waulk.

Verb

walk (third-person singular simple present walks, present participle walking, simple past and past participle walked)

1. (intransitive) 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.
2. (intransitive, colloquial, law) To "walk free", i.e. to win, or avoid, a criminal court case, particularly when actually guilty.

3. (intransitive, colloquial, euphemistic) Of an object, to go missing or be stolen.

4. (intransitive, cricket, of a batsman) 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.
5. (transitive) To travel (a distance) by walking.
6. (transitive) To take for a walk or accompany on a walk.
7. (transitive, baseball) To allow a batter to reach base by pitching four balls.
8. (intransitive) Of an object or machine, to move by shifting between two positions, as if it were walking.

9. (transitive) To cause something to move in such a way.

10. (transitive) To full; to beat (cloth) to give it the consistency of felt.
11. (transitive) To traverse by walking (or analogous gradual movement).

12. (transitive, aviation) To operate the left and right throttles of (an aircraft) in alternation.
13. (intransitive, colloquial) To leave, resign.
14. (transitive) To push (a vehicle) alongside oneself as one walks.
15. (intransitive) To behave; to pursue a course of life; to conduct oneself.
    • , page 35

      We walk perversely with God, and he will walk crookedly toward us.

16. (intransitive) 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.
    • October 9, 1550, Hugh Latimer, sermon preached at Stamford, link

      I heard a pen walking in the chimney behind the cloth.
17. (obsolete) To be in motion; to act; to move.
18. (transitive, historical) To put, keep, or train (a puppy) in a walk, or training area for dogfighting.
19. (transitive, informal, hotel) To move (a guest) to another hotel if their confirmed reservation is not available on day of check-in.

Conjugation

Synonyms

• (move upon two feet): See Thesaurus:walk
• (colloquial: go free): be acquitted, get off, go free
• (be stolen): be/get stolen; (British) be/get nicked, be/get pinched
• (beat cloth): full, waulk (obsolete)

Antonyms

• run

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Descendants

• Chinese Pidgin English: walkee

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English walk, walke, walc, from Old English *wealc (as in Old English wealcspinl) and ġewealc (“a rolling motion, attack”), from Proto-Germanic *walką. Cognate with Icelandic válk (“a rolling around, a tossing to and fro, trouble, distress”).

Noun

walk (plural walks)

1. A trip made by walking.

2. A distance walked.

3. (sports) 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.
4. A manner of walking; a person's style of walking.

5. A path, sidewalk/pavement or other maintained place on which to walk.

   Coordinate term: trail
6. (figurative) A person's conduct or course in life.
7. (poker) A situation where all players fold to the big blind, as their first action (instead of calling or raising), once they get their cards.
9. (baseball) 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".

10. In coffee, coconut, and other plantations, the space between them.
11. (Caribbean, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica) An area of an estate planted with fruit-bearing trees.
    • 1961, Wilson Harris, The Far Journey of Oudin, Book 2, Chapter 6, in The Guyana Quartet, London: Faber and Faber, 1985, p. 150,^[3]

      One day he knew he would build this identical palace for himself. Not next to the road like now—where the present cottage was—but half a mile inside the coconut walk.
12. (historical) A place for keeping and training puppies for dogfighting.
13. (historical) An enclosed area in which a gamecock is confined to prepare him for fighting.
14. (graph theory) A sequence of alternating vertices and edges, where each edge's endpoints are the preceding and following vertices in the sequence. Compare path, trail.
15. (colloquial) Something very easily accomplished; a walk in the park.
    • 1980, Robert Barr, The Coming Out Present (episode of Detective, BBC radio drama; around 16 min 20 sec)

      And for the strongroom itself, he can tell us where to find the combination of the day. We had allowed four hours, Joe, but with this help, once you get us inside, it's a walk! I've been timing it.

16. (UK, finance, slang, dated) 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).

Synonyms

• (trip made by walking): stroll (slow walk), hike (long walk), trek (long walk)
• (distance walked): hike (if long), trek (if long)
• (manner of walking): gait
• (path): footpath, path, (British) pavement, (US) sidewalk

Hyponyms

Coordinate terms

Derived terms

Translations

References

Anagrams

• lawk

Manx

Etymology

Borrowed from English waulk.

Verb

walk (verbal noun walkal or walkey, past participle walkit)

1. to full (cloth), waulk, tuck

Synonyms

• tuck
• giallee

Derived terms

• walker (“tucker”)
• walkeyder (“fuller, tucker”)

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English ġewealc, from Proto-West Germanic *gawalk, *walk, from Proto-Germanic *walką.

Alternative forms

• walc, walke

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /walk/

Noun

walk (uncountable)

1. turning, tossing
2. walk, journey
3. walking, movement
4. pathway, trail

Descendants

• English: walk
• Scots: walk

References

• “walk(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

Verb

walk

1. Alternative form of wakien

Related terms

• wake (“a watch, vigil”)
• waken (“to wake”)
• wakien (“to watch, awake”)
• waknen (“to be aroused from sleep”)

Etymology 3

Verb

walk

1. Alternative form of walken

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /valk/
• Rhymes: -alk
• Syllabification: walk

Noun

walk f

1. genitive plural of walka