chalk

[ chawk ]
See synonyms for: chalkchalkedchalking on Thesaurus.com

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.

  1. a mark made with chalk.

  2. a score or tally.

  3. 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.

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

  2. 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 Phrases
  1. 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

1
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”

Other words from chalk

  • chalk·like, adjective
  • un·chalked, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use chalk in a sentence

  • 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 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • 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 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • Dunn was there, with several others, measuring out distances and chalking lanes.

    Tramping on Life | Harry Kemp
  • Meanwhile—or later, between church and luncheon—Waltheof, in the billiard-room, was chalking a cue.

    The Tigress | Anne Warner
  • I will not go back to revive a name wiped out; it is at least more entertaining to stay here and try chalking out a new one.

  • A little, wiry fellow, with cheerful Cockney speech, he stood chalking his cue at a window.

    Dragon's blood | Henry Milner Rideout
  • It is the custom of the Germans to spare certain houses in every village by chalking up some laudatory notice.

British Dictionary definitions for chalk

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

  1. a line, mark, etc made with chalk

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

  3. British a score, tally, or record

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

  5. by a long chalk British informal by far

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

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

  8. (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

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

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

Origin of chalk

1
Old English cealc, from Latin calx limestone, from Greek khalix pebble

Derived forms of chalk

  • chalklike, adjective
  • chalky, adjective
  • chalkiness, noun

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

Scientific definitions for chalk

chalk

[ 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.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.