balk vs set up

balk

verb
  • To make a deceptive motion to deceive another player. 

  • To refuse suddenly. 

  • To stop short and refuse to go on. 

  • To leave heaped up; to heap up in piles. 

  • To omit, miss, or overlook by chance. 

  • To leave or make balks in. 

  • To stop, check, block. 

  • To indicate to fishermen, by shouts or signals from shore, the direction taken by the shoals of herring. 

  • To engage in contradiction; to be in opposition. 

  • To disappoint; to frustrate. 

noun
  • Beam, crossbeam; squared timber; a tie beam of a house, stretching from wall to wall, especially when laid so as to form a loft, "the balks". 

  • The wall of earth at the edge of an excavation. 

  • The area of the table lying behind the baulk line. 

  • A sudden and obstinate stop. 

  • A hindrance or disappointment; a check. 

  • The rope by which fishing nets are fastened together. 

  • The area of the table lying behind the line from which the cue ball is initially shot, and from which a ball in hand must be played. 

  • An illegal motion by the pitcher, intended to deceive a runner. 

  • A motion used to deceive the opponent during a serve. 

  • An uncultivated ridge formed in the open field system, caused by the action of ploughing. 

set up

verb
  • To deceive an opponent and capitalize on their reactions with a certain technique or maneuver. 

  • To trick someone in order to make them do something. 

  • To cause to happen. 

  • To level to rise in one part of a body of water, especially a shallow one, because of a storm surge caused by persistent wind. 

  • To profess openly; to make pretensions. 

  • To matchmake; to arrange a date between two people. 

  • To provide the money or other support that someone needs for an important task or activity. 

  • To arrange logically. 

  • To cause to take flight; to flush into the air. 

  • To establish someone in a business or position. 

  • To gel or harden. 

  • To trap or ensnare. 

  • To ready something for use. 

  • To create a goalscoring opportunity (for). 

  • To make (someone) proud or conceited (often in passive). 

  • To ready for use. 

  • To found; to start (a business, scheme) 

  • To arrange for an outcome; to tamper or rig. 

adj
  • In a position to function; ready. 

How often have the words balk and set up occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )