[f. CALK sb.1] trans. To provide (a shoe) with a calk or calkin; to rough-shoe.
1624. T. Scott, 2nd Pt. Vox Populi, 46. As many … as would suffice for sixe or eight thousand horse all calked sharpe and frost-nayled of purpose for trauaile ouer the Ice.
Hence Calking vbl. sb.; also attrib., as in calking-anvil, an anvil for forming horse-shoe calks; calking-tongs, for sharpening these.
1695. Kennett, Par. Antiq., Gloss. s.v. Calciatura, The calking or cauking of horse-shoes, i.e. to turn up the two corners, that a horse may stand the faster upon ice, or smooth stones.
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 5 Feb., 4/1. Colonel Myles’s system was the exact opposite of the much-practised ‘calking.’
