vbl. sb. [f. CAULK v.]
1. The action of the verb CAULK. Also fig.
1481–90. Howard Househ. Bks. (1841), 70. To the Spanyard for kalkyng iiijd.
1577. Eden & Willes, Hist. Trav., 224 b. Lycour … lyke vnto pytche … very commodious for the calkyng of shyppes.
1692. in Capt. Smith’s Seaman’s Gram., I. xvi. 76. Caulking, is driving of Ockham, Span-hair, and the like into all the seams of the Ship, to keep out Water.
1884. Law Times, 10 May, 26/2. Repairs of caulking.
2. attrib. and in comb., as caulking-chisel, a chisel for closing the seams between iron plates; caulking-iron, an instrument resembling a chisel used for driving the oakum into the seams of ships; caulking-mallet, a mallet for driving this.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., ii. 13. A calking Iron and a Mallet.
1666. Dryden, Ann. Mirab., cxlvi. Their left-hand does the calking-iron guide.
a. 1859. Macaulay, Hist. Eng. (1861), V. 75. [Peter the Great] wielded with his own hand the caulking iron and the mallet.
1879. Taine, in Cornh. Mag., Jan., 41. Docks, timber yards, calking basins, and shipbuilders’ yards, multiply and increase on each other.
