walk
Forms
- present (v1)
- walk
- past (v2)
- walked
- past participle (v3)
- walked
- present participle
- walking
- 3rd person singular
- walks
- Plural
- walks
Definitions
1.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.
2.Of an object, to go missing or be stolen.(colloquial)
- If you leave your wallet lying around, it’s going to walk.
3.To "walk free", i.e. to win, or avoid, a criminal court case, particularly when actually guilty.(colloquial)
- If you can’t present a better case, that robber is going to walk.
4.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.
- I had to walk because there were no taxis.
- I want to go for a walk in the countryside.
- I had to walk home.
1.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.
2.A trip made by walking.
- I take a walk every morning.
3.A distance walked.
- It’s a long walk from my house to the library.
- The precinct is about ten minutes’ walk, straight ahead, so you can’t miss it.
4.A manner of walking; a person's style of walking.
- The Ministry of Silly Walks is underfunded this year.
Frequency
Overall
Very common· #384
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Common
- General reading & writing
- Very common
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Common
Related words
Etymology
From Middle English walk, walke, walken, walkyn, wolken (“to roll, toss, or turn; to walk; to move; to be living; to beat or full; to perform”), a conflation of Old English wealcan (“to move around; to revolve; to roll; to fluctuate; to discuss”) (ġewealcan (“to go, traverse; to roll”)) and Old English wealcian (“to curl, roll up, twist; to wrinkle”); both from Proto-West Germanic *walkan, from Proto-Germanic *walkaną (“to roll, toss, turn, wind; to walk, wander, wend; to full, trample”), *walkōną (“to roll about; to full”), from Proto-Indo-European *walg- (“to twist, turn, move”).