subs. (colloquial).—1. A score, reckoning; and (in a more decidedly slang sense) BY CHALKS, MANY CHALKS, LONG CHALKS, etc., i.e., ‘degrees’ or ‘marks’; also ‘credit,’ or ‘tick.’ Cf., CLOCK STOPPED.
d. 1529. SKELTON, The Tunnynge of Elynoure Rummynge, 613.
| Were fayne wyth a CHALKE | |
| To score on the balke. [M.] |
1592. NASHE, Pierce Penilesse, His Supplication to the Divell, B j b. Hee that hath no money must goe and dine with Sir John best betrust, at the signe of the CHALKE and the Post.
1634. S. ROWLEY, The Noble Souldier, v., 3, in Bullen’s A Collection of Old English Plays, I., 333. There’s lesse CHALKE upon you[r] score of sinnes. [M.]
d. 1704. T. BROWN, A Satyr upon the French King, wks. (1710) I., 80. I trespass’d most enormously in CHALK. [M.]
1719. D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy (1872), I., 270. This wheedling talk you fancy will rub out my CHALK.
1838–40. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker (ed. 1862), p. 102. They reckon themselves here a CHALK above us Yankees.
1864–5. YATES, Broken to Harness, I., p. 174. ‘Can you say that … I have deceived or thrown you over in any one way?’ ‘Never!’ ‘Thank God for that!’ says the girl, with some bitterness; ‘for that’s a CHALK in my favor, at least.’
2. (nautical).—A scratch or scar. Cf., verb, sense 2, and CHALKERS, sense 1.
1840. MARRYAT, Poor Jack, vi. I got this CHALK.
Adj. (turf).—Unknown or incompetent. [From the practice at race-meetings of keeping blank slides at the telegraph board on which the names of new jockeys can be inscribed in chalk, while the names of well-known men are usually painted or printed in permanent characters. The former were called CHALK-jockeys, and the general public argued that they were incompetent, being unknown.]
Verb (old).—1. To score up, or tick off, in chalk, a material at one time handier than pen-and-ink. Subsequently in pugilistic circles merit marks, etc., were made with the same.
2. (nautical).—To make one ‘stand treat’ or ‘pay his footing.’ If an old hand succeeds in CHALKING the shoes of a green hand, the latter has to ‘stand drinks all round.’
3. (thieves’).—To strike, Cf., CHALKERS, sense 1.
1822. SCOTT, The Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xvii. (II., p. 84). CHALK him across the peepers with your cheery [which, translated, means slash him over the eyes with your dagger].
TO CHALK UP, or TO CHALK IT UP, phr. (common).—To credit, or take credit; to put to one’s account.
1597. The Returne from Parnassus, First Part, I., i., 451, All my debts stande CHAUKT UPON the poste for liquor! [M.]
1611. CHAPMAN, May-Day, Act I., p. 278 (Plays, 1874). Fan. Faith, sir, she [hostess] has CHALK’D UP twenty shillings already, and swears she will CHALK no more.
1843. Punch’s Almanack, Jan. … ‘When you wish for beer resort freely to the CHALK, and go on, getting as much as you can upon this principle, until it becomes unproductive, when you may try it in another quarter.’
TO BEAT BY LONG or MANY CHALKS, phr. (common).—To beat thoroughly; to show appreciable superiority.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘A Lay of St. Romwold,’ (ed. 1862), p. 447.
| Still Sir Alured’s steed was ‘BY LONG CHALKS’ the best | |
| Of the party, and very soon distanced the rest. |
1838–40. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, p. 26 (ed. 1826). ‘Yes,’ says he, ‘your factories down East beat all natur; they go ahead on the English a LONG CHALK.’
1856. C. BRONTË, The Professor, ch. iii. ‘You are not as fine a fellow as your plebeian brother BY A LONG CHALK.’
1883. GRENVILLE MURRAY, People I Have Met, p. 133. The finest thing in the world; or, as he himself would have expressed it, ‘the best thing out BY MANY CHALKS.’
TO WALK or STUMP ONE’S CHALKS, phr. (popular).—To move or run away; to be off. [Said to be a corruption of ‘walk! you’re chalked,’ the origin of which is found in the ancient practice of lodgings for the royal retinue being taken arbitrarily by the marshal and sergeant-chamberlain, when the inmates were sent to the right about, and their houses designated by a chalk mark. When Mary de Médicis came to England in 1638, Sieur de Labat was employed to mark ‘all sorts of houses commodious for her retinue in Colchester.’ The same custom is referred to in the Life and Acts of Sir William Wallace, TO STUMP (q.v.) = to go on foot.] For synonyms, see AMPUTATE.
1840. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. xi. ‘The way she WALKS HER CHALKS ain’t no matter. She is a regular fore-and-after.’
1843. The Comic Almanack, p. 366. And since my future walk’s chalk’d out—at once I’ll WALK MY CHALKS.
1871. DE VERE, Americanisms, p. 318. The President, in whom he is disappointed for one reason or another, does not come up to chalk; when he dismisses an official, he is made to WALK THE CHALK.
TO BE ABLE TO WALK A CHALK, phr. (popular).—To be sober. [The ordeal on board ship of trying men suspected of drunkenness is to make them walk along a line chalked on the deck, without deviating to right or left. Cf., MAKING CHALKS and TOE THE LINE (q.v.).]
MAKING CHALKS, phr. (nautical cadets’).—A term connected with the punishment of boys on board ship, and in the Royal Naval School. Two chalk lines are drawn wide apart on the deck or floor, and the boy to be punished places a foot on each of these lines, and stoops, thereby presenting a convenient section of his person to the boatswain or master.
TO CHALK THE LAMP-POST, phr. (American).—To bribe. For synonyms, see GREASE THE PALM.
1857. Boston Post, March 5. CHALKING THE LAMP POST. ‘The term for bribery in Philadelphia.’
There are other expressions connected with chalk, such as ‘to know chalk from cheese,’ ‘to chalk out,’ etc., but these hardly find a place here.
