walk

Meaning

Verb

1. (intransitive) To move on the feet by alternately setting each foot (or pair or group of feet, in the case of animals with four or more feet) forward, with at least one foot on the ground at all times. Compare run.
2. (colloquial, intransitive) To "walk free", i.e. to win, or avoid, a criminal court case, particularly when actually guilty.
3. (colloquial, euphemistic, intransitive) Of an object, to go missing or be stolen.
4. (intransitive) To 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. (transitive) To travel (a distance) by walking.
6. (transitive) To take for a walk or accompany on a walk.
7. (transitive) To allow a batter to reach base by pitching four balls.
8. (intransitive) To reach base by being pitched four balls.
9. (intransitive) Of an object or machine, to move by shifting between two positions, as if it were walking.
10. (transitive) To cause something to move in such a way.
11. (transitive) To full; to beat (cloth) to give it the consistency of felt.
12. (transitive) To traverse by walking (or analogous gradual movement).
13. (transitive) To operate the left and right throttles of (an aircraft) in alternation.
14. (colloquial, intransitive) To leave, resign.
15. (transitive) To push (a vehicle) alongside oneself as one walks.
16. (intransitive) To behave; to pursue a course of life; to conduct oneself.
17. (intransitive) To go restlessly about; said of things or persons expected to remain quiet, such as a sleeping person, or the spirit of a dead person.
18. (obsolete) To be in motion; to act; to move.
19. (historical, transitive) To put, keep, or train (a puppy) in a walk, or training area for dogfighting.
20. (informal, transitive) To move (a guest) to another hotel if their confirmed reservation is not available on the day of check-in.
21. (intransitive) To 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.)

Noun

1. A trip made by walking.
2. A distance walked.
3. An 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.
5. A path, sidewalk/pavement or other maintained place on which to walk.
6. (figuratively) A person's conduct or course in life.
7. A situation where all players fold to the big blind, as their first action (instead of calling or raising), once they get their cards.
8. An award of first base to a batter following four balls being thrown by the pitcher; known in the rules as a "base on balls".
9. In coffee, coconut, and other plantations, the space between them.
10. (Belize, Caribbean, Guyana, Jamaica) An area of an estate planted with fruit-bearing trees.
11. (historical) A place for keeping and training puppies for dogfighting.
12. (historical) An enclosed area in which a gamecock is confined to prepare him for fighting.
13. A sequence of alternating vertices and edges, where each edge's endpoints are the preceding and following vertices in the sequence. Compare path, trail.
14. (colloquial) Something very easily accomplished; a walk in the park.
15. (UK, dated, slang) A 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).

Synonyms

go

stroll

travel

step

move

go on foot

pace

march

gait

tramp

promenade

tread

wander

come

walking

🚶

pass

proceed

saunter

ramble

amble

leave

stride

run

roam

take a walk

hike

turn

walk about

base on balls

drive

journey

go by foot

step on

ambulate

rove

perambulation

go for a walk

foot

🦶

path

🛣️

walk of life

tread on

outing

mosey

traverse

constitutional

tour

airing

strut

trample

walk around

Translations

marcher

🚶

caminar

🚶

gehen

andar

🚶

camminare

🚶

promenade

🚶

lopen

laufen

🚶

andar

🚶

Spaziergang

🚶

promener

🚶

wandelen

pasear

passeggiata

🚶

caminhar

🚶

Pronounced as (IPA)

/wɔːk/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: walken

Inherited from Old English: wealcan

Inherited from Old English: wealcian

Cognate with Scots: walk

Cognate with Saterland Frisian: walkje

Cognate with Western Frisian: swalkje

Cognate with Dutch: walken

Cognate with Dutch: zwalken

Cognate with German: walken

Cognate with Danish: valke

Cognate with Latin: valgus

Cognate with Sanskrit: वल्गति

Inherited from Middle English: walk

Inherited from Old English: *wealc

Cognate with Old English: wealcspinl

Cognate with Icelandic: válk

In summary

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.