chalk

American  

[chawk] / tʃɔk /

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.

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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 British  

/ 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

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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 Scientific  

/ 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.

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Other Word Forms

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

Etymology

Origin of chalk

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”

Example Sentences

Some of it he chalks up to bad luck.

From The Wall Street Journal

If he weren’t a trauma doctor, you might chalk up the missing headgear to romantic imagery and an homage to “Then Came Bronson.”

From The Wall Street Journal

A brightly coloured chalk sign informs me that the water temperature today is a chilly 3.9C, as one of the regulars tells me this is not cold water swimming, it's "ice" water swimming.

From BBC

Baffled, Redick said at practice that he chalked up the mistakes to “the holidays.”

From Los Angeles Times

It means the upswing in the stock price can be chalked up to more than volatility and speaks to the company’s dominance in its industry.

From Barron's

Related Words

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