Stopping short and refusing to go on:
— A balky mule.
— A balky customer.

synonym: balking.

Roget 283: receding etc. v.; retrograde, retrogressive; regressive, refluent^†, reflex, recidivous, resilient; crab-like; balky; reactionary etc. 277.    ... show more

Roget 606: obstinate, tenacious, stubborn, obdurate, casehardened; inflexible etc. (hard) 323; balky; immovable, unshakable, not to be moved; inert etc. 172; unchangeable etc. 150; inexorable etc. (determined) 604; mulish, obstinate as a mule, pig-headed.    dogged; sullen, sulky; unmoved, uninfluenced unaffected.    willful, self-willed, perverse; resty^†, restive, restiff^†; pervicacious^†, wayward, refractory, unruly; heady, headstrong; entete [Fr.]; contumacious; crossgrained^†.    arbitrary, dogmatic, positive, bigoted; prejudiced etc. 481; creed-bound; prepossessed, infatuated; stiff-backed, stiff necked, stiff hearted; hard-mouthed, hidebound; unyielding; impervious, impracticable, inpersuasible^†; unpersuadable; intractable, untractable^†; incorrigible, deaf to advice, impervious to reason; crotchety etc. 608.    ... show more