Word
walk
US/ˈwɑk/
UK/wˈɔːk/
Definitions
01to move on foot
v. to move along by putting one foot in front of the other.
v. to move on foot by setting each foot forward alternately, ensuring at least one foot is always in contact with the ground.
“I usually walk to the office because it is close to my house.”
“The doctor advised him to walk for at least thirty minutes every day to improve his cardiovascular health and general mobility.”
02to accompany someone
v. to go with someone or an animal while they are walking.
v. to accompany or escort a person or animal on a journey on foot. Transitive — takes a direct object.
“It is getting dark, so I will walk you to the bus stop.”
“She makes a point of walking her dog through the park every evening, regardless of the weather conditions.”
03to quit or leave
v. to leave a job or a situation suddenly, often because you are unhappy.
v. to resign from a position or abandon a situation abruptly as a form of protest or due to dissatisfaction.
“If they don't give him a pay rise, he might just walk.”
“After the board rejected her proposal for the third time, the lead architect decided to walk, leaving the project without a director.”
Informal
04to go missing
v. to be stolen or to disappear mysteriously.
v. to be stolen or removed without permission; often used for small items that disappear from a workplace.
“I left my pen on the desk, but it seems to have walked.”
“The manager noticed that several expensive tools tended to walk whenever the night shift was left unsupervised.”
Informal
05a trip on foot
n. a journey you make by walking, often for pleasure or exercise.
n. an instance of walking for recreation, exercise, or as a means of travel.
“We went for a long walk in the woods on Sunday afternoon.”
“A brisk walk in the morning air proved to be the perfect remedy for his lingering fatigue.”
06a path
n. a route or track built for people to walk on.
n. a designated path, sidewalk, or pedestrian thoroughfare.
“The garden has a beautiful gravel walk that leads to the fountain.”
“The estate features several shaded walks that wind through the ancient oak forest, providing a cool retreat during the summer months.”
07style of moving
n. the particular way that a person walks.
n. an individual's characteristic manner or gait while walking.
“I knew it was him from a distance because of his unusual walk.”
“The actor spent weeks studying the king's heavy, deliberate walk to ensure his performance was historically convincing.”
08baseball
n. when a batter gets to go to first base because the pitcher threw four bad balls.
n. an award of first base to a batter after the pitcher throws four pitches outside the strike zone.
“The pitcher gave up a walk, and now the bases are full.”
“With two outs in the ninth inning, the pitcher's unexpected walk allowed the tying run to reach base.”
American English
Synonyms
Antonyms
Etymology
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 (válgati, “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 (“a rolling motion, attack”), from Proto-Germanic walką. Cognate with Icelandic válk (“a rolling around, a tossing to and fro, trouble, distress”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Collocations
Word family
Related words
Idioms
ball and Chalk — walk
cake walk — Something extremely easy.
cock of the walk — A proud or conceited person.
crawl before one walks — To learn the basics before doing something at a more advanced level.
in a walk — Easily; without difficulty.
learn to walk before one can run — Before one can perform a complicated task, one has to learn how to perform more simple tasks.
perp walk — The intentional public display before news cameras of a person in police custody, especially someone famous or notorious, for the purpose of satisfying public interest, demonstrating the effectiveness of the authorities, or shaming the person.
take a long walk on a short pier — Used to tell someone to go away, or that their request will not be met.
take a walk — To go away, get lost.
that ever walked on two legs — That ever lived.
Show all 40
walk a mile in someone's shoes — To experience what someone has experienced.
walk all over — To dominate a person or a group; to have a person take a submissive or inferior role.
walk and chew gum at the same time — To do two normally trivial tasks at the same time; to exhibit basic competence or task-management skills.
walk away — To withdraw from a problematic situation.
walk away from — To abandon or leave; to shun; to refuse.
walk free — To go unpunished; to win, or avoid, a criminal court case, particularly when actually guilty.
walk in on — To enter suddenly or unexpectedly while something is happening; to intrude or interrupt by entering.
walk in the park — Something easy or pleasant.
walk in the snow — An occasion when a momentous career decision is made, especially a decision to resign or retire.
walk of life — An occupation, role, social class, or lifestyle.
walk off with — To steal, especially by surreptitiously removing an unguarded item.
walk on — To join a college sports team without being recruited for it.
walk on broken glass — To do everything possible to achieve something, even if it involves great risk or discomfort.
walk on eggshells — To be overly careful in dealing with a person or situation because they get angry or offended very easily; to try very hard not to upset someone or something.
walk on sunshine — To be extremely happy.
walk on the wild side — An occasion or incident involving adventurous, risky, or morally questionable behavior.
walk on water — To perform godlike or superhuman feats.
walk one's chalks — To depart; to go away without ceremony.
walk over — To gain an easy victory.
walk the beat — To patrol on the job, especially as a police officer or guard.
walk the chalk — To keep a correct course in manners or morals.
walk the dog — To perform a trick where the yo-yo rolls on the ground, attached to the string.
walk the floor — To pace back and forth restlessly, because of worry, excitement, distress, etc.
walk the line — To maintain an intermediate position between contrasting choices, opinions, etc.
walk the plank — To be forced to resign from a position in an organization.
walk the talk — To perform actions consistent with one's claims.
walk the walk — To act consistently in line with one's claims; to follow through.
walk through — To explain (something) to (someone), step by step.
whistle walk — The path slaves took to deliver food from the kitchen building of a plantation to the main dining room. Stories claim that slaves were expected to whistle during this walk in order to assure their masters that they were not eating the food.
worship the ground someone walks on — To admire or adore someone to excess.
Domains
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/walk