bilk vs. balk

[Thomas M. Paikeday]

Could someone (Jesse, Fred, Paul, Erin, Luanne, Frank) please help/unhelp me in an argument with a non-linguist friend who claims that the original (believed to be obsolete since mid-19th c.) cribbage meaning of "bilk", namely, "to balk or spoil the score of (an opponent, opponent's crib)" (SOED, 2002, #B1) persists in current English?

Is there any evidence showing that an utterance like "Jack bilked Jill out of $100" could mean something slightly different from "evade payment of (a creditor, a bill)" (SOED #B2)? Something that may be cited in extenuation of Jack's behaviour, that's to say, he only hindered or disappointed Jill? In other words, is the first part of B2 ("balk expectation etc.") substantiated by evidence? (My OED1992 is not very helpful, the citations stopping with the 19th c.).

Simply put, does the "balk" meaning apply in the above utterance where a sum of money is mentioned?

As we know, all the linguistic evidence that may be available on any given word is never fully recorded and some of it may not even qualify or it may exist only in the spoken language or in regional varieties, or whatever.

Any help would be appreciated.

Many thanks.

TOM PAIKEDAY
www.paikeday.net