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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Bilk

Bilk \Bilk\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bilked; p. pr. & vb. n. Bilking.] [Origin unknown. Cf. Balk.] To frustrate or disappoint; to deceive or defraud, by nonfulfillment of engagement; to leave in the lurch; to give the slip to; as, to bilk a creditor.
--Thackeray.

Bilk

Bilk \Bilk\, n.

  1. A thwarting an adversary in cribbage by spoiling his score; a balk.

  2. A cheat; a trick; a hoax.
    --Hudibras.

  3. Nonsense; vain words.
    --B. Jonson.

  4. A person who tricks a creditor; an untrustworthy, tricky person.
    --Marryat.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
bilk

1650s, from or along with the noun (1630s), first used as a cribbage term; as a verb, "to spoil (someone's) score." Origin obscure, it was believed in 17c. to be "a word signifying nothing;" perhaps it s a thinned form of balk "to hinder." Meaning "to defraud" is first recorded 1670s. Related: Bilked; bilking.

Wiktionary
bilk

n. 1 (context cribbage English) The spoiling of someone's score in the crib. 2 (context obsolete English) A deception, a hoax. vb. 1 (context transitive English) To spoil the score of (someone) in cribbage. 2 (context transitive English) To do someone out of their due; to deceive or defraud, to cheat (someone).

WordNet
bilk
  1. v. cheat somebody out of what is due, especially money

  2. hinder or prevent (the efforts, plans, or desires) of; "What ultimately frustrated every challenger was Ruth's amazing September surge"; "foil your opponent" [syn: thwart, queer, spoil, scotch, foil, cross, frustrate, baffle]

  3. evade payment to; "He bilked his creditors"

  4. escape, either physically or mentally; "The thief eluded the police"; "This difficult idea seems to evade her"; "The event evades explanation" [syn: elude, evade]

Wikipedia
Bilk

Bilk can refer to:

  • Bilk, a milk beer made by the Abashiri brewery
  • Bilk, verb, to void paying money borrowed from others
  • Düsseldorf-Bilk, a part of Düsseldorf

Usage examples of "bilk".

Although Zeb never got beyond eighth grade, he had an innate understanding of the best way to bilk a sucker.

The government had viciously attacked him and the bet, calling it a con game meant to bilk the citizens of America.

He came to Tennyson with Wardle and Schanz in the hope of finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, or at least a town full of folk ready willing and delighted to be bilked at games of chance in which no chance was allowed on his side.

Why, from the very moment an American started building his or her Miami Moorish house in the exclusive colony which the Meskins disparagingly called Disneylandia, the poor, helpless, despised retiree could expect to be gulled, bilked, hoodwinked and price-gouged by every Meskin contractor, carpenter, plumber, etc.

Bankers Row, where most of the goods they had bilked out of the natives were being prepped for final shipment.

He it is who punctures your fine attitudes and urges you to look after Number One, to be unfaithful to your wife, to bilk your debts, and so on and so forth.

Just about eligible to travel with this bilk here--Shadbelly Higgins--this loud-mouthed sneak that shoots people in the back and calls himself a desperado.

It likely was a hoax, some complicated, convoluted scheme to bilk him out of some ready cash, or to distract him from some upcoming negotiations.

Senator Orney Bilk, who is visiting the area on a campaign swing for the first time since he left his boyhood home in nearby Stinking Creek to enlist in the army following the end of hostilities in Southeast Asia.

Congress, Senator Bilk took vehement exception to a decision by Judge Crease reversing a verdict by a local jury as undue interference by the Federal judiciary and called for his impeachment.

Speaking on condition that he not be identified, Village official J Harret Ruth, who introduced Senator Bilk at the rally and who makes no secret of his own political ambitions, said my God.

These charges have been taken up by Senator Orney Bilk, appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee which is considering the fitness of the judge, Thomas Crease, for a seat on the U.

Court of Appeals being vigorously opposed by Senator Orney Bilk, a native of nearby Stinking Creek, who is reported to have called for his impeachment.

Court of Appeals, widely viewed in light of his advanced age as an interim political appointment, which was cleared yesterday morning by the Senate Judiciary Committee following the abrupt collapse of the virulent opposition led by Senator Orney Bilk who had gone so far as to call for his impeachment.

Had he upped anchor immediately the last barrel was winched down into the last lighter, he most likely now would be laughing over his tipple somewhere telling the funny story of how he bilked a black savage in far southern Ifriqah, but he did not.