chalk up

chalk (tʃɔːk)

—n
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.	(Brit) a score, tally, or record
6.	informal as alike as chalk and cheese, as different as chalk and cheese totally different in essentials
7.	informal (Brit) by a long chalk by far
8.	can't tell chalk from cheese, doesn't know chalk from cheese to be unable to judge or appreciate important differences
9.	informal (Brit) not by a long chalk by no means; not possibly
10.	(modifier) made of chalk

—vb
11.	to draw or mark (something) with chalk
12.	(tr) to mark, rub, or whiten with or as if with chalk
13.	(intr) (of paint) to become chalky; powder
14.	(tr) to spread chalk on (land) as a fertilizer

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

'chalklike

—*adj*

'chalky

—*adj*

'chalkiness

—n

chalk up

—vb
1.	to score or register (something): we chalked up 100 in the game
2.	to credit (money) to an account etc (esp in the phrase chalk it up)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

chalk

O.E. cealc, a W.Gmc. borrowing from L. calx (2) "limestone, lime (crushed limestone), small stone," from Gk. khalix "small pebble," which many connect 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.

American Heritage

Science Dictionary

chalk

(chôk) Pronunciation Key
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.

American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

chalk up

Score or earn, as in She chalked up enough points to be seeded first in the tournament. This term alludes to recording accounts (and later, scores) in chalk on a slate. [c. 1700]
Credit or ascribe, as They chalked their success up to experience. [First half of 1900s]

Matching Quote

"We measure the success of schools not by the kinds of human beings they promote but by whatever increases in reading scores they chalk up. We have allowed quantitative standards, so central to the adult economic system, to become the principal yardstick for our definition of our children's worth."

-Kenneth Kenniston

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