chalk

[chawk]

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noun

a soft, white, powdery limestone consisting chiefly of fossil shells of foraminifers.

a prepared piece of chalk or chalklike substance for marking, as a blackboard crayon.

a mark made with chalk.

a score or tally.

verb (used with object)

to mark or write with chalk.

to rub over or whiten with chalk.

to treat or mix with chalk: to chalk a billiard cue.

to make pale; blanch: Terror chalked her face.

verb (used without object)

(of paint) to powder from weathering.

adjective

of, made of, or drawn with chalk.

Verb Phrases

chalk up,

to score or earn: They chalked up two runs in the first inning.
to charge or ascribe to: It was a poor performance, but may be chalked up to lack of practice.

Origin of chalk

before 900; Middle English chalke, Old English cealc < Latin calc- (stem of calx) lime

Related formschalk·like, adjectiveun·chalked, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for chalking

impress, seal, delineate, portray, depict, chart, paint, chalk, bleach, compose, rewrite, create, scrawl, sign, note, record, pen, draft, address, print

Examples from the Web for chalking

Contemporary Examples of chalking

That includes Palin's crosshairs map, which Mitchell says he "didn't think much about," chalking it up to "politics."
Palin's Other Arizona 'Targets'
Shushannah Walshe
January 10, 2011
Cynics have long derided the supposed lottery curse as a fraud, chalking it up to inflated media coverage of such deaths.
Lotto Death Curse
Anneli Rufus
February 19, 2010

Historical Examples of chalking

The work was not fine; we laid it out by chalking around a small plate.
Quilts
Marie D. Webster
He went on, therefore, chalking out Lovel's literary career for him.
The Antiquary, Complete
Sir Walter Scott
Here and there a man was chalking crosses on his gate or shutters.
The White Terror and The Red
Abraham Cahan
They were chalking Vive Napolon upon the pavements and walls.
The Life of Roger Langdon
Roger Langdon
He was now chalking his cue, and his eyes had an excited glitter.
Johnstone of the Border
Harold Bindloss

British Dictionary definitions for chalking

chalk

noun

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

a piece of chalk or a substance like chalk, often coloured, used for writing and drawing on a blackboard

a line, mark, etc made with chalk

billiards snooker a small cube of prepared chalk or similar substance for rubbing the tip of a cue

British a score, tally, or record

as alike as chalk and cheese or as different as chalk and cheese informal totally different in essentials

by a long chalk British informal by far

can't tell chalk from cheese or doesn't know chalk from cheese to be unable to judge or appreciate important differences

not by a long chalk British informal by no means; not possibly

(modifier) made of chalk

verb

to draw or mark (something) with chalk

(tr) to mark, rub, or whiten with or as if with chalk

(intr) (of paint) to become chalky; powder

(tr) to spread chalk on (land) as a fertilizer

Word Origin for chalk

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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for chalking

chalk

1570s, "to mix with chalk;" 1590s as "to mark with chalk," from chalk (n.). Related: Chalked; chalking. Old English had cealcian "to whiten." Certain chalk marks on shipped objects meant "admitted" or "shipped free," hence some figurative senses. Chalk boards also were commonly used in keeping credit, score, etc., hence figurative use of chalk it up (1903).

chalk

Old English cealc "chalk, lime, plaster; pebble," a West Germanic borrowing from Latin calx (2) "limestone, lime (crushed limestone), small stone," from Greek khalix "small pebble," which many trace to a PIE root for "split, break up." In most Germanic languages still with the "limestone" sense, but in English transferred to the opaque, white, soft limestone found abundantly in the south of the island. Modern spelling is from early 14c. The Latin word for "chalk" was creta, which also is of unknown origin.

chalking in Science

chalk

[chôk]

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.