walk

/wawk/, v.i.

1. to advance or travel on foot at a moderate speed or pace; proceed by steps; move by advancing the feet alternately so that there is always one foot on the ground in bipedal locomotion and two or more feet on the ground in quadrupedal locomotion.

2. to move about or travel on foot for exercise or pleasure: We can walk in the park after lunch.

3. (of things) to move in a manner suggestive of walking, as through repeated vibrations or the effect of alternate expansion and contraction: He typed so hard that the lamp walked right off the desk.

4. Baseball. to receive a base on balls.

5. Slang.

a. to go on strike; stage a walkout: The miners will walk unless they get a pay raise.

b. to be acquitted or to be released or fined rather than sentenced to jail: If the prosecutor doesn't present his case well, the murderer may walk.

6. to go about on the earth, or appear to living persons, as a ghost: to believe that spirits walk at night.

7. (of a tool, pointer, or pen of a recording device, etc.) to glide, slip, or move from a straight course, fixed position, or the like: A regular drill bit may walk on a plastic surface when you first try to make a hole. When the earthquake started, the pen on the seismograph walked all over the paper.

8. to conduct oneself in a particular manner; pursue a particular course of life: to walk humbly with thy God.

9. Basketball. (of a player in possession of the ball) to take more than two steps without dribbling or passing the ball.

10. Obs. to be in motion or action.

v.t.

11. to proceed through, over, or upon at a moderate pace on foot: walking London streets by night; walking the floor all night.

12. to cause to walk; lead, drive, or ride at a walk, as an animal: We walked our horses the last quarter of a mile.

13. to force or help to walk, as a person: They were walking him around the room soon after his operation.

14. to conduct or accompany on a walk: He walked them about the park.

15. to move (a box, trunk, or other object) in a manner suggestive of walking, as by a rocking motion.

16. Baseball. (of a pitcher) to give a base on balls to (a batter).

17. to spend or pass (time) in walking (often fol. by away): We walked the morning away along the beach.

18. to cause or accomplish by walking: We saw them walking guard over the chain gang.

19. to examine, measure, etc., by traversing on foot: to walk a track; to walk the boundaries of the property.

20. Basketball. to advance (the ball) by taking more than two steps without dribbling or passing.

21. Informal. to send (a person who has a reservation at a hotel) to another hotel because of overbooking: It's exasperating to find yourself walked when you arrive at a hotel late in the evening.

22. walk off, to get rid of by walking: to walk off a headache.

23. walk off with,

a. to remove illegally; steal.

b. to win or attain, as in a competition: to walk off with the first prize for flower arrangements.

c. to surpass one's competitors; win easily: to walk off with the fight.

24. walk out,

a. to go on strike.

b. to leave in protest: to walk out of a committee meeting.

25. walk out on, to leave unceremoniously; desert; forsake: to walk out on one's family.

26. walk out with, Brit. to court or be courted by: Cook is walking out with the chauffeur.

27. walk (someone) through, to guide or instruct carefully one step at a time: The teacher will walk the class through the entire testing procedure before the real test begins.

28. walk Spanish,

a. to be forced by another to walk on tiptoe.

b. to walk cautiously.

c. to be discharged or dismissed.

d. to discharge or dismiss (someone).

29. walk the plank. See plank (def. 5).

30. walk through, Theat., Television.

a. to release (a play) by combining a reading aloud of the lines with the designated physical movements.

b. Informal. to perform (a role, play, etc.) in a perfunctory manner.

c. to make little or no effort in performing one's role: He didn't like the script and walked through his part.

31. walk up, (of a hunter) to flush (game) by approaching noisily on foot and often with hunting dogs.

n.

32. an act or instance of walking or going on foot.

33. a period of walking for exercise or pleasure: to go for a walk.

34. a distance walked or to be walked, often in terms of the time required: not more than ten minutes' walk from town.

35. the gait or pace of a person or an animal that walks.

36. a characteristic or individual manner of walking: It was impossible to mistake her walk.

37. a department or branch of activity, or a particular line of work: They found every walk of life closed against them.

38. Baseball. See base on balls.

39. a path or way for pedestrians at the side of a street or road; sidewalk.

40. a place prepared or set apart for walking.

41. a path in a garden or the like.

42. a passage between rows of trees.

43. an enclosed yard, pen, or the like where domestic animals are fed and left to exercise.

44. the walk. See race walking.

45. a sheepwalk.

46. a ropewalk.

47. (in the West Indies) a plantation of trees, esp. coffee trees.

48. a group, company, or congregation, esp. of snipes.

49. Brit.

a. the route of a street vendor, tradesman, or the like.

b. the district or area in which such a route is located.

c. a tract of forest land under the charge of one forester or keeper.

50. Archaic. manner of behavior; conduct; course of life.

51. Obs. a haunt or resort.

52. take a walk, Informal. to leave, esp. abruptly and without any intention or prospect of returning (often used imperatively to indicate dismissal): If he doesn't get his way, he takes a walk. I don't need your advice, so take a walk.

[bef. 1000; (v.) ME walken, OE wealcan to roll, toss, gewealcan to go; c. D, G walken to full (cloth), ON valka to toss; (n.) ME, deriv. of the v.]

Syn. 1. step, stride, stroll, saunter, ambulate, perambulate, promenade. 32. stroll, promenade, constitutional. 35. step, carriage. 37. sphere, area, field. 39, 40. passage, footpath, alley, avenue. 43. run.

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▪ animal locomotion

      in horsemanship, moderately slow four-beat gait of a horse, during which each foot strikes the ground separately and the horse is supported by two or three feet at all times.

      The normal sequence of a walk is the order in which the feet are raised: a pattern such as right hind, right fore, left hind, and left fore. During the walk the horse's head moves down and forward and then up and back.

      During a relaxed, or free, walk the reins are nearly slack, freeing the horse's head and neck. The extended walk, a variation of the relaxed walk, results in a cadenced swing of long, unhurried strides.

      The collected walk, a short-striding gait, requires a balanced head and neck of the horse, controlled by the rider's handling of the reins. This gait also requires impulsion, produced by pressure of the rider's legs on the horse's sides. The speeding up of the collected walk creates the rack, which has a pronounced four-beat cadence.

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