walk

present singular third person walks · participle present walking · participle past walked · past walked · first person past singular walked · archaic present second person singular walkest · past second person singular walked · archaic past second person singular walkedst · present singular third person walks · archaic present singular third person walketh · past singular third person walked · past plural walked · past subjunctive walked · participle present walking · participle past walked · alternative obsolete walke

1. intransitiveTo move on the feet by alternately setting each foot (or pair or group of feet: in the case of some non-human animals with four or more feet) forward, with at least one foot on the ground at all times. Compare run.

   To walk briskly for an hour every day is to keep fit.

   2 more examples

   Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. […] His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn. He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.

   1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 16

   Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 257

2. colloquialintransitivelawTo "walk free", i.e. to win, or avoid, a criminal court case, particularly when actually guilty.

   If you can’t present a better case, that robber is going to walk.

   Synonyms: be acquit

3. colloquialeuphemisticintransitiveOf an object, to go missing or be stolen.

   If you leave your wallet lying around, it’s going to walk.

   Synonyms: be, get stolen, be, get nick, get pinch

4. intransitiveball gamesTo 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. transitiveTo travel (a distance) by walking.

   I walk two miles to school every day.

   2 more examples

   The museum’s not far from here – you can walk it.

   Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. […] His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn. He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.

   1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 16

6. transitiveTo take for a walk or accompany on a walk.

   Will you walk me home?

   2 more examples

   I walk the dog every morning.

   I will rather trust[…]a thief to walk my ambling gelding.

   c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 47

7. intransitiveTo appear in a parade.

   Those who wish to walk in the parade this fall should sign up now.

8. transitiveball gamesTo allow a batter to reach base by pitching four balls.
9. intransitiveball gamesTo reach base by being pitched four balls.
10. intransitiveOf an object or machine, to move by shifting between two positions, as if it were walking.

    If we don't bolt the washing machine down, it's going to walk across the room.

11. transitiveTo cause something to move in such a way.

    I carefully walked the ladder along the wall.

12. transitiveTo full; to beat (cloth) to give it the consistency of felt.

    Synonyms: full, waulk

13. transitiveTo traverse by walking (or analogous gradual movement).

    I walked the streets aimlessly.

    1 more example

    Debugging this computer program involved walking the heap.

14. transitiveaeronauticsTo operate the left and right throttles of (an aircraft) in alternation.

    Still keeping his tail in the air, Red coaxed the “Airknocker” ahead and as we grasped his struts he slowly retarded the throttle. We walked the plane between two tiedown blocks and not until we had tied the struts did Red cut the switch.

    1950, Flying Magazine, volume 46, number 3, page 18

15. colloquialintransitiveTo leave, resign.

    If we don't offer him more money he'll walk.

    1 more example

    He will make their cowes and garrans to walk.

    1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC, page 39

16. transitiveTo push (a vehicle) alongside oneself as one walks.

    The county had a successful defense only because the judge kept telling the jury at every chance that the cyclist should have walked his bicycle like a pedestrian.

    1994, John Forester, Bicycle Transportation: A Handbook for Cycling Transportation Engineers, MIT Press, page 245

17. intransitiveTo behave; to pursue a course of life; to conduct oneself.

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

    , page 35

18. intransitiveTo 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.

    1 more example

    There have been reports of cases where, in the event of a girl having died, a man was chosen to go through the marriage ceremony and even have intercourse with the body, before burial, so that she might not "walk".

    1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 32

19. obsoleteTo be in motion; to act; to move.

    her toung did walke / In fowle reproch.

    1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 5, page 233

    2 more examples

    I have heard, but not believed, the spirits of the dead / May walk again.

    c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 288

    Come, doe you thinke, I'ld walke in any plot

    1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: […] [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, →OCLC, Act III

20. historicaltransitiveTo put, keep, or train (a puppy) in a walk, or training area for dogfighting.
21. informaltransitiveTo move (a guest) to another hotel if their confirmed reservation is not available on the day of check-in.
22. intransitivesuch as a drill bit or reamerengineeringTo tend to move radially while feeding axially, whether tending toward on-center or tending toward off-center. Walking may be desirable (e.g., when a reamer walks into concentricity) or undesirable (e.g., when a twist drill walks into eccentricity.)
23. gamesTo pull (a trigger) rapid-fire by alternating two fingers.

plural walks

1. A trip made by walking.

   go on a walk

   2 more examples

   I take a walk every morning.

   FOUR BAPTISMS IN YING-SHAN We had looked forward to four or five days' work in Ying-shan similar to that in Yün-mung,but at the end of our two days' walk from the one city to the other (they lie more than fifty miles apart), Mr. Terrell had a touch of fever, so we judged it best to remain in Ying-shan only for a day and then travel as quickly as possible by chair to Teh-ngan to consult our good friend, Dr. Morley, of the Wesleyan Mission Hospital in that city, and from thence take boat for Hankow.

   1894, “From Month to Month”, in The Chronicle of the London Missionary Society, number 33, Readers Union, →OCLC, page 220

   Synonyms: stroll, hike, trek

2. A distance walked.

   It’s a long walk from my house to the library.

   1 more example

   The precinct is about ten minutes’ walk, straight ahead, so you can’t miss it.

   Synonyms: hike, trek

3. hobbiesAn 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.

   The Ministry of Silly Walks is underfunded this year.

   Synonyms: gait

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

   And then it appeared to the young man that he was walking his love up the grass walk of Heriotside, with the house close by him.

   1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide

   Synonyms: footpath, path, pavement, sidewalk

6. figurativelyA person's conduct or course in life.

   people of different ages and walks

   1 more example

   Men like Stuart who had no desire to extol Coleridge's virtues, and other witnesses quite as hostile, to whom a moral dereliction could hardly be a mortal offence, were loud in praise of the purity of his walk in life.

   1887, Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine, Sir Hall Caine, John Parker Anderson, Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, page 136

7. card gamesA situation where all players fold to the big blind, as their first action (instead of calling or raising), once they get their cards.
8. ball gamesAn award of first base to a batter following four balls being thrown by the pitcher; known in the rules as a "base on balls".

   The pitcher now has two walks in this inning alone.

9. In coffee, coconut, and other plantations, the space between them.
10. BelizeCaribbeanGuyanaJamaicaAn 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, 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.

    3 more examples

    Twenty Acres of Land well kept in a Plantain Walk, will afford a very considerable Support, as Plantains are as hearty a Food as Eddoes, and the Plantain Walk may be a Nursery for declining Slaves, as well as to fatten old Cattle when they are past Labour.

    1755, William Belgrove, A Treatise upon Husbandry or Planting, Boston, page 14

    For half a mile from Vaughansfield the road, now a mere track, leads through pastures and a coffee-walk to the foot of a very steep hill […]

    1803, Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons, London: Longman and Rees, Volume 1, Letter 4, page 80

    He couldn’t sleep and took to walking outside at night, to look at the stars, to feel the cool air, and for a long time wasn’t even conscious that he always ended up standing in the darkness of the cocoa walk staring at the shutters of Bridget’s room.

    1995, Olive Senior, “Window”, in Discerner of Hearts, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, page 66

11. historicalA place for keeping and training puppies for dogfighting.
12. historicalAn enclosed area in which a gamecock is confined to prepare him for fighting.
13. graph theoryA sequence of alternating vertices and edges, where each edge's endpoints are the preceding and following vertices in the sequence. Compare path, trail.
14. colloquialSomething very easily accomplished; a walk in the park.

    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.

    1980, Robert Barr, The Coming Out Present (episode of Detective, BBC radio drama; around 16 min 20 sec)

15. UKdatedslangbusinessA 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).

1. A surname.

1. uncountablebiochemistryA particular histidine kinase