walk

Verb

walk (third-person singular simple present walks, present participle walking, simple past and past participle walked)

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.

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

   • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square, OCLC 16832619, page 16:

     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.

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 15, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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.

2. (intransitive, colloquial, law) To "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.

3. (intransitive, colloquial, euphemistic) Of an object, to go missing or be stolen.

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

4. (intransitive, cricket, of a batsman) 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.

   I walk two miles to school every day.  The museum’s not far from here – you can walk it.

   • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square, OCLC 16832619, page 16:

     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.

6. (transitive) To take for a walk or accompany on a walk.

   I walk the dog every morning.  Will you walk me home?

   • William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

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

7. (transitive, baseball) To allow a batter to reach base by pitching four balls.
8. (transitive) To move something by shifting between two positions, as if it were walking.

   I carefully walked the ladder along the wall.

9. (transitive) To full; to beat cloth to give it the consistency of felt.
10. (transitive) To traverse by walking (or analogous gradual movement).

    I walked the streets aimlessly.   Debugging this computer program involved walking the heap.

11. (intransitive, colloquial) To leave, resign.

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

    • Edmund Spenser (c.1552–1599)

      He will make their cows and garrans to walk.

12. (transitive) To push (a vehicle) alongside oneself as one walks.
    • 1994, John Forester, Bicycle Transportation: A Handbook for Cycling Transportation Engineers, MIT Press, p.245:

      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.

13. To behave; to pursue a course of life; to conduct oneself.
    • Jeremy Taylor (1613–1677)

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

14. To be stirring; to be abroad; 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.
    • Hugh Latimer (c.1485-1555)

      I heard a pen walking in the chimney behind the cloth.

15. (obsolete) To be in motion; to act; to move.
    • Edmund Spenser (c.1552–1599)

      Her tongue did walk in foul reproach.

    • William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

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

    • Ben Jonson (1572-1637)

      Do you think I'd walk in any plot?

16. (transitive, historical) To put, keep, or train (a puppy) in a walk, or training area for dogfighting.
17. (transitive, informal, hotel) To move a guest to another hotel if their confirmed reservation is not available on day of check-in.

Noun

walk (plural walks)

1. A trip made by walking.

   I take a walk every morning

2. A distance walked.

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

3. (sports) 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.

   The Ministry of Silly Walks is underfunded this year

5. A path, sidewalk/pavement or other maintained place on which to walk. Compare trail.
6. (poker) A situation where all players fold to the big blind, as their first action (instead of calling or raising), once they get their cards.
7. (baseball) 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".

   The pitcher now has two walks in this inning alone

8. In coffee, coconut, and other plantations, the space between them.
9. (historical) A place for keeping and training puppies for dogfighting.
10. (historical) An enclosed area in which a gamecock is confined to prepare him for fighting.
11. (graph theory) A sequence of alternating vertices and edges, where each edge's endpoints are the preceding and following vertices in the sequence.
12. (colloquial) Something very easily accomplished; a walk in the park.
    • 1980, Robert Barr, The Coming Out Present (episode of Detective, BBC radio drama; around 16 min 20 sec)

      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.

13. (Britain, finance, slang, dated) 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

• tuck
• giallee

Derived terms

• walker (“tucker”)
• walkeyder (“fuller, tucker”)

Related terms

• wake (“a watch, vigil”)
• waken (“to wake”)
• wakien (“to watch, awake”)
• waknen (“to be aroused from sleep”)