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. chalk up

   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. informal,  totally different in essentials

7. informal,  by far

8. to be unable to judge or appreciate important differences

9. 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

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.

Other Word Forms

• chalklike adjective
• unchalked adjective
• chalky adjective
• chalkiness noun

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

England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt says that her team are "chalk and cheese" compared to how they felt after the Ashes defeat at the beginning of the year.

Read more on BBC

The American was broken twice and trailed 4-1 but did offer some resistance in the closing stages, chalking one of those off, but didn't have enough to stop the six-time Grand Slam champion.

Read more on BBC

But this couldn’t be chalked up to an impaired or distracted driver.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Most recently, the school has banned students from writing on university sidewalks with chalk — a move critics believe is meant to quell pro-Palestinian speech on campus — and decorating their residence hall floors with a non-OSU-theme.

Read more on Salon

She has also overseen a 25% drop in homicides, an impressive feat in a country exhausted by drug violence that she chalks up to her administration’s aggressive new crackdown on organized crime.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• address 
• compose 
• create 
• draft 
• note 
• pen 
• print 
• record 
• rewrite 
• scrawl 
• scribble 
• sign 
• tell