c. 1859. Hiram Bigelow [Letter in Fam. Comp.]. [Bartlett]. I went into the dining-room, and sot down afore a plate that had my name writ on a card onto it, and I did walk into the beef, and taters, and things, about east.
To walk the chalk, verb. phr. (orig. American).—1. To walk along a chalk line as a test of sobriety. Hence (2) to go straight in conduct, manners, or morals, to keep up to the mark.
1840. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 3 S., xi. The way she walks her chalks ain't no matter. She is a regular fore-and-after.
1843. Comic Almanack, 366. And since my future walk's chalk'd out—at once I'll walk my chalks.
1871. De Vere, Americanisms, 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.
18[?]. Simon Suggs [Bartlett], 89. 'The Tallapoosa volunteers,' said Captain Suggs; 'so let everybody look out and walk the chalk.'
To walk one's chalks (or to walk), verb. phr. (common).—To decamp, move on, go about one's business: see Chalk for suggested origin.
[d. 1599. Spenser, State of Ireland. When he comes foorth, he will make theyr cowes and garrans to walke.]
1853. Reade, Gold, iv. 2. There are riflemen among them that will bring you down like squirrels if you don't walk your chalks in good time.
1873. Trollope, Phineas Redux, i. Browborough has sat for the place now for three Parliaments. . . . I am told that he must walk if anybody would go down who could talk to the colliers every night for a week or two.
The ghost walks (or doesn't walk), phr. (theatrical).—There is (or is not) money in the treasury.
1853. Household Words, 183. When no salaries are forthcoming the ghost doesn't walk.
1883. Referee, 24 June, 3, 2. An Actors' Benevolent Fund box placed on the treasurer's desk every day when the ghost walks would get many an odd shilling or sixpence put into it.
1885. The Stage, 112. The rogues seldom appear at a loss for a plausible story when it is time for the ghost to walk. Ibid. The next day the ghost declines to walk.
1889. J. C. Colman (in Slang, Jargon, and Cant), 405. Ghost-walking, a term originally applied by an impecunious stroller in a sharing company to the operation of 'holding the treasury,' or paying the salaries, which has become a stock facetiæ among all kinds and descriptions of actors. Instead of inquiring whether the treasury is open, they generally say—'Has the ghost walked?' or 'What, has this thing appeared again?' (Shakspeare).
1890. Illustrated Bits, 29 Mar., 11. 1. And a few nights with empty benches laid the ghost completely. It could not even walk to the tune of quarter salaries.
To walk the plank, verb. phr. (nautical).—To walk overboard, to die: formerly an old method of execution or vengeance, the victim being forced to walk blindfolded along a plank over the ship's side.
To walk into one's affections, verb. phr. (common).—1. To walk into (q.v. supra); and (2) to get into debt.
To walk over, verb. phr. (racing).—To win a race without opposition; hence to win easily. Walk-over = an unopposed success, complete triumph. [Spec. of a horse, coming alone, of all the entries, to the scratch; it has consequently but to walk over the course at leisure to be entitled to the stake.]
c. 1859. Vicksburg Herald [Bartlett]. What a difference it makes to a candidate, when he knows he is offered a walk-over instead of a forlorn hope.
