Heading
To beat by long or many chalks, phr. (common).—To beat thoroughly; to show appreciable superiority.
1837. R. H. Barham, Ingoldsby
Legends (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, 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. Bronté, 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, Clockmaker, 3 S.,
ch. xi. 'The way she walks her chalks ain't no matter. She is a regular fore-and-after.'
1843. Comic Almanack, p. 366. And
since my future walk's chalk'd out—at once I'll walk my chalks.
1871. DeVere, 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.
Chalkers, subs. (old).—1. Men of
wit in Ireland, who in the night
amuse themselves with cutting
inoffensive passengers across the
face with a knife. They are
somewhat like those facetious
gentlemen, some time ago known
in England by the title of
sweaters and mohocks.—Grose.
See Ireland Sixty Years Since
(p. 15).
