Forms: 1 calc, cealc, 4–7 chalke, (5 chaalke, shalke), 6 chauke, chawke, 6–7 chaulk(e, 6– chalk. See also CAUK sb. (Common WGer.; OE. cealc (:—*ceælc, *cælc, *calc) = OS. calc (MDu. calk, Du. kalk), OHG. chalch (MHG. kalc, mod.G. kalk, kalch); also Da., Sw., mod.Icel. kalk); a. L. calc-em, calx lime; this sense is retained in the Teutonic languages generally, but in English the word passed at an early period into the sense of L. crēta, OHG. krîde, F. craie. Cf. the quotations in which L. calx is translated cealcstan limestone, and the fact that chalk is the chief ‘limestone’ of the S. E. of England.]
¶ It occurs in the oldest Eng. Glossaries, as rendering L. calculus (? = later cealcstan.)
c. 700. Epinal Gl. (also Erf. & Cott.), 165. Calculus, cealc.
c. 1050. Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 362/1. Calculus, cealc, numestan (? read pumestan).
† 1. ? Lime. (Traces of this sense after the OE. period are very uncertain; quot. 1572 is doubtful.)
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., VI. xxxii. § 2. Sume niht on anum niwcilctan huse [nuper calce illitorum] … þa ongon se cealc mid unʓemete stincan.
c. 1050. O. E. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 334. Calx, cealcstan [= limestone]. Ibid. (a. 1200), 551. Calcx, chalcston.
1572. J. Jones, Bathes of Bath, II. 17 b. Snow is very cold, and chalke is very hot, yet eyther of them is most whyte.
2. An opaque white soft earthy limestone, which exists in deposits of vast extent and thickness in the south-east of England, and forms high cliffs along the sea-shore.
Chemically, chalk consists of carbonate of lime with some impurities. Geologically, it is a deep-sea formation composed of fragments of shells of Foraminifera, abounding in certain important animal fossils, and interspersed with nodules of flint. It is burned for lime, and prepared for writing or marking on blackboards or other dark surfaces. In 17–18th c. it is often mentioned as eaten by young women suffering from chlorosis: cf. quot. 1811.
956. [see Cealcpytt, chalkpit in 7].
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 3047. Hir chekes … as the chalke white.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 68. Calke or chalke, erþe, calx, creta.
c. 1450. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 576. Creta, chaalke.
c. 1500. Cocke Lorell’s B. (1843), 3. Stele floure and put chauke therin.
1587. Mirr. Mag., Elstride, xxxiv. 7. Shee lookt as pale as chalke with wrathfull ire.
1694. Reply Ladies’ & Bachelor’s Petit., in Harl. Misc., IV. 438 (D.). How can any man … believe that ten thousand green-sickness maidens … would rather die martyrs to oatmeal, loam, and chalk than accept … matrimony?
1700. Farquhar, Const. Couple, V. iii. (D.). You might have had me once; but now, Madam, if you should by chance fall to eating chalk or gnawing the sheets, ’tis none of my fault.
1787. Winter, Syst. Husb., 51. Chalk is an absorbent earth.
1811. Hooper, New Med. Dict., Chlorosis … a preternatural appetite for chalk, lime, and other absorbents … usually attend on this disease.
c. 1850. Arab. Nts. (Rtldg.), 640. The robber quickly made a mark on the door with some chalk.
1857. Kingsley, Misc., II. 372. It [chalk] was deposited as white lime mud, at a vast sea-depth.
1859. Musketry Instr., 21. A black board and a piece of chalk … to describe the figures.
1880. Geikie, Phys. Geog., iv. 191. Chalk … is formed of the broken remains of minute forms of marine animal life.
3. Applied to other earths resembling chalk. Fuller’s chalk: ? fuller’s earth. In quot. 1658 probably = CALX. Brown chalk: a name for umber. French chalk: a kind of steatite. Red chalk: a bed of chalk of a deep red color in Norfolk; also applied to ‘ruddle, a red argillaceous ore of iron’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 560. Sundry sorts of chaulkes for to scoure clothes, and namely the Tuckers earth.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 200. Mingled with Fullers chaulke.
1658. Rowland, trans. Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 911. The chaulk or salt of it … is … commended by Chymicks, and Chirurgeons, for to cure that kernell or tumour of flesh.
Mod. The section of the Red Chalk at Hunstanton.
b. spec. Applied to various colored preparations resembling chalk in texture, and used like it in the form of crayons for drawing. With pl. Also attrib. drawn with chalk, executed in chalk.
1481–90. Howard Househ. Bks. (1841), 202. Item, in yelu okyr … Item, in blak chalke.
c. 1790. Imison, Sch. Arts, II. 55. Sketching chalk … a composition made of whiting and tobacco-pipe clay rolled like crayons.
1816. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, 702. Chalks are … held in a steel or brass case, called a portcrayon.
1832. G. Downes, Lett. Cont. Countries, I. 161. Two heads in chalks by … Rahn.
1883. G. Lloyd, Ebb & Flow, I. 30. A beautiful chalk head of a dog.
1884. Cassell’s F. M., 216/1. Shading in chalk from the flat.
4. In reference to the old custom at alehouses, etc., of ‘ticking’ or writing up with chalk a ‘score’ or account of credit given: transferred from the chalk used to the chalk marks or ticks on the door, etc., the ‘score’ entered in chalk, the reckoning or account; credit, ‘tick.’
a. 1529. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 613. We’re fayne with a chalke To score on the balke.
c. 1570. Thynne, Pride & Lowl. (1841), 58. Your cheker man for it doth keepe no chalke.
1590. Tarleton, Newes Purgat. (1844), 82. His score growing very great, and much chalk upon the post.
1592. Nashe, P. Penilesse, 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. R., Noble Soldier, V. iii. in Bullen, O. Pl., I. 333. There’s lesse chalke upon you[r] score of sinnes.
16[?]. Songs Lond. Prentices (1841), 157. When we have no mony, Wher shall we find chalk?
a. 1704. T. Brown, Sat. on Fr. King, Wks. 1730, I. 60.
| When these were gone, my bowels not to baulk, | |
| I trespass’d most enormously in chalk. |
1719. D’Urfey, Pills (1872), I. 270. This wheedling talk You fancy will rub out my Chalk.
5. A mark, line or ‘score’ made with chalk; spec. in various games (formerly scored with chalk).
1680. Cotton, Compl. Gamester, in Singer, Hist. Cards (1816), 341. The eldest must show how many chalks he hath in his hand to set up.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., III. vii. 242. Thirty-one chalks complete the game.
1861. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alt., III. cxlvi. 135. Draw a chalk, and let those who are disposed, step over it.
1887. Sporting Life, 24 June, 1/4. Skittles … Curry went out with 4 chalks.
b. fig. A scratch or scar. slang.
1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, vi. I got this chalk.
6. Phrases. a. Chalk and cheese are opposed in various proverbial expressions as things differing greatly in their qualities or value, though their appearance is not unlike, and their names alliterate.
1393. Gower, Conf., I. 17. Lo, how they feignen chalk for chese.
a. 1540. Barnes, Wks. (1573), 258/2. This definition agreeth as well with your key, as Chalke and Chæse.
a. 1555. Latimer, in Foxe, A. & M. (1684), III. 413. As though I could not discern cheese from chalk.
1579. Gosson, Sch. Abuse, To Rdr. Making black of white, Chalke of Cheese.
1600. Rowlands, Lett. Humours Blood, vi. 75. Tom is no more like thee, then Chalks like Cheese.
1708. Motteux, Rabelais, V. xvi. Words … as analogous as Chalk and Cheese!
1826. Scott, Woodst., xxiv. This Scotch scare-crow was no more to be compared to him than chalk was to cheese.
b. (By) a long chalk, also by long chalks, by chalks (colloq.): in a great degree, by far (in allusion to the use of chalk in scoring ‘points,’ etc.; see 4, 5). To walk one’s chalks (slang): to go away, be off.
1837–40. Haliburton, Clockm. (1862), 26. Your factories down east beat all natur; they go ahead on the English a long chalk.
1840–5. Barham, Ingol. Leg., St. Romwold (D.). Sir Alured’s steed was by long chalks the best.
a. 1849. J. C. Mangan, Poems (1859), 459. I could once beat all of them by chalks.
a. 1859. De Quincey, Syst. Heavens, Wks. III. 171, note. As regards the body of water … the Indus ranks foremost by a long chalk.
1857. Kingsley, Two Y. Ago, I. i. 16 (D.). The prisoner has … cut his stick, and walked his chalks, and is off to London.
7. attrib. and Comb., as chalk-bank, -cliff, -country, -down, -dust, -formation, -hill, -licker, -lime, -ridge, -score (see 4); chalk-eating, -like, adjs.; chalk-bed, a stratum of chalk; chalk-cutter, one who digs chalk; chalk-drawing, a drawing executed in chalk (see 3 b); chalk-flint, a flint found in the chalk: so chalk-fossil, etc.; chalk-head (humorous), a good head for chalking scores (see 4); chalk-lime, lime made from chalk; chalk-line, ‘a cord rubbed with chalk or similar material, used by artificers for laying down straight lines on the material as a guide for a cutting instrument’ (Knight, Dict. Mech.); chalk-marl, an argillaceous stratum situated just beneath the Lower White Chalk; chalk-pit, chalk-quarry, a pit or quarry from which chalk is dug.
1823. W. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), I. 309. You actually have a *chalk-bank to your right and a sand-bank to your left.
1802. Playfair, Illustr. Hutton. The., 177. In the *Chalk-beds of England … a great proportion of the petrifactions belong to the tropical seas.
1773. G. White, Selborne, xxxviii. The next church, ruin, *chalk-cliff … may become their hybernaculum.
1830. W. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), II. 321. The houses white and thatched, as they are in all *chalk-countries.
1876. Green, Short Hist., i. § 3 (1882), 17. Sitting … on the *chalk-down above Minster.
a. 1723. D’Urfey, Plague of Impert. (D.). Discouler’d, pale, as … *chalk-eating girl That oatmeal with it chew’d.
1823. W. Buckland, Reliq. Diluv., 193. The diluvium contains … fragments of chalk and *chalk-flints.
1881. Carpenter, Microsc. (ed. 6), xxi. 826. The Ventriculites which are well known as *chalk-fossils.
1863. Mark Lemon, Wait for End, II. vii. 167 (Hoppe). ‘Haven’t got a *chalk-head, and can’t keep score,’ replied Tom [the waiter].
1823. W. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), I. 315. A great *chalk-hill.
1832. Tennyson, Miller’s Dau., xxxi. On the chalk-hill the bearded grass Is dry and dewless.
* 1712. Steele, Spect., No. 431, ¶ 3. These craving Damsels, whether … Pipe-champers, *Chalk-lickers, Wax-nibblers, [etc.].
1842. E. Turner, Elem. Chem. (ed. 7), 759. The white *chalk-like excrement of Serpents.
1754. Hales, in Phil. Trans., XLVIII. 827. *Chalk-lime … will not preserve water from putrefaction: though stone-lime … does preserve water in a great measure.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, I. 55. Eight or ten young women at work; not one … stayed her needle or *chalk-line for a single moment.
1876. Page, Adv. Text-bk. Geol., xviii. 344. Bones of birds have been obtained from the *chalk-marl of England, hence termed cimoliornis.
1811. A. T. Thomson, Lond. Disp. (1818), 653. An elegant and useful adjunct to the *chalk mixture.
956. Chart. Eadwiʓ, in Cod. Dipl., V. 346. Of Deohholes hyllæ on ðonæ *cealcpyt; swa forð … oðða ða dunæ ufewearde.
1884. H. G. Hewlett, in 19th Cent., Aug., 331. The chalk-pits … are usually unfenced.
1832. Tennyson, Miller’s Dau., xv. The white *chalk-quarry from the hill Gleam’d to the flying moon.
1866. Carlyle, Remin., I. 239. Now have a *chalk-score and no money.
