# walk

Pronunciation: say "WAWK" US /wɔk/, UK /wɔːk/

## Verb

1. To move on your feet by setting one foot forward after the other, always keeping at least one foot on the ground.
   - Simple: To move along on your feet, one step at a time, keeping at least one foot on the ground.
   - _They walk along the river path after dinner._
   - _She walked slowly across the quiet room._
2. To go over, along, or through a place, route, or distance on foot.
   - Simple: To go along a road, path, or distance on foot.
   - _Tourists walk the ancient walls every summer._
   - _She walked the length of the bridge at sunset._
4. To take a person or animal for a walk, go along with them on foot, or push a vehicle such as a bicycle while walking.
   - Simple: To go on foot with a person or animal, or push a bike along beside you as you walk.
   - _Every morning they walk their two dogs around the block._
   - _He walked the elderly neighbor home after the meeting._
5. Followed by through: to lead someone step by step through a task or procedure, carefully showing or explaining every stage.
   - Simple: To help someone do a task by carefully showing or explaining each step, used with through.
   - _Our accountant walked us through the tax forms line by line._
   - _If the software won't install, a support agent can walk you through it over the phone._
7. In baseball, to give a batter first base on four balls or by an intentional walk; also, of a batter, to reach first base in this way.
   - Simple: In baseball, to let a batter reach first base after four balls or on purpose, or to reach it that way.
   - _The closer walked the cleanup hitter to load the bases._
   - _Managers expect pitchers to walk power hitters in tight situations._
8. To quit or resign, especially abruptly and of one's own choice. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To quit a job or leave a situation, often suddenly.
   - _When the deal collapsed, half the team threatened to walk._
   - _He walked rather than accept the new terms._
10. To conduct oneself or pursue a particular course of life.
   - Simple: To live and behave in a certain way.
   - _The elders urged the young to walk with integrity._
   - _He vowed to walk honestly, whatever the cost._
14. To be acquitted or otherwise escape conviction in a criminal case, especially when the accused is in fact guilty. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To go free after a court case instead of being punished, often when really guilty.
   - _Without a key witness, the defendant is likely to walk._
   - _Two of the accused walked on a technicality last spring._
15. Of a thing, to disappear, usually through theft, as if it had wandered off by itself. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Of a thing, to disappear, often because someone has stolen it.
   - _Leave cash on the desk and it tends to walk._
   - _Expensive tools were walking off the site every week._
17. Of a heavy object or machine, to move, or be moved, by shifting from one point of contact to another as if taking steps.
   - Simple: Of a heavy thing, to move a little at a time by rocking side to side, or to move it like that.
   - _An unbalanced dryer will slowly walk toward the middle of the room._
   - _Vibration caused the table saw to walk a few inches during the cut._
18. To move about restlessly when expected to stay quiet, as a sleeping person does or as the spirit of a dead person is said to do.
   - Simple: To move around restlessly when meant to stay still, like a sleepwalker or a ghost.
   - _Servants whispered that the murdered earl's ghost walked after dark._
   - _Children sometimes walk during deep sleep without remembering it._
19. In cricket, to leave the field voluntarily after the fielding side appeals, before the umpire rules, when the batsman believes he is genuinely out: an act of sportsmanship.
   - Simple: In cricket, to leave the field on your own when you know you are out, without waiting for the umpire's decision.
   - _Few professional batsmen walk these days, preferring to leave the decision to the umpire._
   - _She walked immediately, knowing she had nicked the ball to the keeper._

## Noun

3. A journey on foot, for pleasure, exercise, or to get somewhere; also, the distance it covers.
   - Simple: A trip you make on foot, or how far you have to walk.
   - _He took a quiet walk through the park to clear his head._
   - _Their morning walks have become a daily habit._
6. In baseball, an award of first base to a batter after four balls, or when the fielding team asks for an intentional walk without pitching.
   - Simple: In baseball, going to first base after the umpire calls four balls, or when the other team asks for it without pitching.
   - _The pitcher gave up a walk to load the bases._
   - _Her patience at the plate drew a crucial walk in the ninth._
9. A path, sidewalk, or other maintained surface set aside for people on foot.
   - Simple: A path or sidewalk made for people to walk on.
   - _A brick walk wound between the flower beds._
   - _The garden's shaded walks invited slow afternoon strolls._
11. A person's conduct or the course their life takes, and in walk of life, a person's job, class or position in society.
   - Simple: The way a person lives and behaves. In walk of life, it means a person's job or place in society.
   - _The charity brings together volunteers from every walk of life._
   - _The pastor reminded us that small, everyday choices shape a believer's walk with God over a lifetime._
12. The particular manner or style in which a person moves on foot.
   - Simple: The way a person moves when they go on foot.
   - _The actor studied the old sailor's rolling walk for the role._
   - _She has a graceful walk that turns heads._
13. A task that is very easily accomplished; something requiring little effort. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Something that is very easy to do, needing little effort.
   - _With the new tools, the whole repair was a walk._
   - _The polls had promised a tight race, but the challenger won in a walk, carrying every district._
16. A race-walking event in athletics in which one foot must always appear to touch the ground and the front leg must stay straight from landing until it passes under the body.
   - Simple: A track race in which athletes must always keep one foot touching the ground.
   - _The men's 50-kilometer walk was one of the longest events in track and field._
   - _Judges in the walk disqualify competitors whose feet both leave the ground._
20. The slowest natural pace at which a person or animal moves on foot, slower than a run, a trot or a gallop.
   - Simple: The slowest normal speed at which a person or animal moves on its feet, slower than running.
   - _After the long gallop, the rider eased her mare back to a walk._
   - _When the fire alarm went off, the pupils filed out of the building at a walk, just as they had practiced._

## Other meanings

- (verb) In the hotel trade, to relocate a guest holding a confirmed booking to another hotel because no room is available at check-in.
- (noun) In poker, a situation in which every player folds to the big blind as their first action, letting that player take the blinds unchallenged.
- (noun) In graph theory, a sequence of vertices and edges in which each edge connects the vertex before it to the vertex after it, with repetition of vertices and edges allowed.
- (verb) In machining, for a rotating tool such as a drill or reamer to drift radially while it feeds straight into the workpiece, moving either toward or away from the intended center.
- (verb) In aviation, to work the left and right engine throttles of an aircraft alternately rather than together.
- (verb) To finish woolen cloth by beating or trampling it so that its fibers tighten and mat into the dense consistency of felt.
- (verb) To keep, rear and condition a puppy at a secluded place set aside for training dogs for dogfighting.
- (verb) To move or be active, as a wagging tongue is.
- (noun) The open lane separating rows of trees or bushes on a coffee or coconut estate.
- (noun) A section of a property given over to growing fruit trees.
- (noun) A site where young fighting dogs are brought up and conditioned for dogfights.
- (noun) A fenced space where a fighting rooster is kept to get ready for a fight.
- (noun) A check drawn on a bank outside the London clearing system, which had to be carried to the paying bank by hand.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–2, 4–5, 7–8, 10, 14–15, 17–19** — The verb comes from Middle English walken, a blend of Old English wealcan ("to move round, roll, turn, toss") and wealcian ("to curl, roll up"). These trace back through Proto-Germanic *walkaną and *walkōną ("to roll, toss, turn") to a Proto-Indo-European root *walg- ("to twist, turn, move"), with cognates in Dutch, German, Danish, and others.
**Meanings 3, 6, 9, 11–13, 16, 20** — Proto-Germanic *walką gave Old English *wealc and ġewealc ("a rolling motion, attack"), and these became the Middle English noun walk. Icelandic válk, meaning a tossing to and fro or a rolling around, is a cognate.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/walk (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).