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

• chalky adjective
• chalklike adjective
• chalkiness noun
• unchalked 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

Over time, these plates form chalk and limestone layers that record Earth’s climate history.

Read more on Science Daily

Analysts say Beijing is newly aggressive in its relations with the U.S., chalking it up to the rare-earth issue.

Read more on MarketWatch

Instead, the Chargers lost after the ball bounced off Johnston’s hands in what he chalked up to a “lack of concentration.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street billionaire may have met his match in the chalk hills of southern England.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

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

Related Words

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