chalk

[ chawk ]

noun

1. a soft, white, powdery limestone consisting chiefly of fossil shells of foraminifers.
2. a prepared piece of chalk or chalklike substance for marking, as for writing on a blackboard.
3. a mark made with chalk.
4. a score or tally.
5. Sports Slang. the competitor considered most likely to win by the oddsmakers; favorite:

   If you don’t know anything about either team, just bet the chalk.

verb (used with object)

1. to mark or write with chalk.
2. to rub over or whiten with chalk.
3. to treat or mix with chalk:

   to chalk a billiard cue.

4. to make pale; blanch:

   Terror chalked her face.

verb (used without object)

1. (of paint) to powder from weathering.

adjective

1. of, made of, or drawn with chalk.

verb phrase

1. 1. to score or earn:

      They chalked up two runs in the first inning.

   2. to charge or ascribe to:

      It was a poor performance, but may be chalked up to lack of practice.

chalk

/ tʃɔːk /

noun

1. a soft fine-grained white sedimentary rock consisting of nearly pure calcium carbonate, containing minute fossil fragments of marine organisms, usually without a cementing material
2. a piece of chalk or a substance like chalk, often coloured, used for writing and drawing on a blackboard
3. a line, mark, etc made with chalk
4. billiards snooker a small cube of prepared chalk or similar substance for rubbing the tip of a cue
5. a score, tally, or record
6. as alike as chalk and cheese or as different as chalk and cheese informal.
   totally different in essentials
7. by a long chalk informal.
   by far
8. can't tell chalk from cheese or doesn't know chalk from cheese
   to be unable to judge or appreciate important differences
9. not by a long chalk informal.
   by no means; not possibly
10. modifier made of chalk

verb

1. to draw or mark (something) with chalk
2. tr to mark, rub, or whiten with or as if with chalk
3. intr (of paint) to become chalky; powder
4. tr to spread chalk on (land) as a fertilizer

chalk

/ chôk /

1. A soft, white, gray, or yellow limestone consisting mainly of calcium carbonate and formed primarily from the accumulation of fossil microorganisms such as foraminifera and calcareous algae. Chalk is used in making lime, cement, and fertilizers, and as a whitening pigment in ceramics, paints, and cosmetics. The chalk used in classrooms is usually artificial.

Derived Forms

• ˈchalky, adjective
• ˈchalkˌlike, adjective
• ˈchalkiness, noun

Other Words From

• chalk·like adjective
• un·chalked adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of chalk¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English chalk, schalk, calk, Old English cealc “plaster, cement”; cognate with Old Saxon calc, Dutch kalk, German Kalch, Kalk, from Latin calc- (stem of calx ) “lime, limestone, quicklime,” from Greek chálix “small stone, rubble, gravel, mortar”

Word History and Origins

Origin of chalk¹

Old English cealc, from Latin calx limestone, from Greek khalix pebble

Example Sentences

On Thursday, British authorities charged a pair of climate change activists for vandalizing Stonehenge, a prehistoric megalithic structure on a chalk plateau known as the Salisbury Plain.

From Salon

“I think it’s f**king hilarious. Hilarious to watch the swamp struggle with the existential crisis that’s been shoved in their faces by the American people,” Santos said, chalking up the pushback to sour grapes.

From Salon

The noises “were usually late at night, so we just chalked it up to animals being in the house,” the woman’s son-in-law Ricardo Silva told NBC News.

From Los Angeles Times

Among the top 10 teams in the world this year, none have scored more points than the 77 England have chalked up between 40 minutes and 60 minutes in matches.

From BBC

Proposition 6 proponents chalked up its likely failure not to voters’ support for “slavery” but to growing concerns about public safety and how those worries could impact any policy measure related to prison reform.

From Los Angeles Times