Library / English Dictionary

CHALK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A piece of calcite or a similar substance, usually in the shape of a crayon, that is used to write or draw on blackboards or other flat surfaces

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("chalk" is a kind of...):

writing implement (an implement that is used to write)

Meronyms (substance of "chalk"):

chalk (a soft whitish calcite)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "chalk"):

drawing chalk (colored chalks used by artists)

tailor's chalk (chalk used by tailors to make temporary marks on cloth)

Derivation:

chalk (write, draw, or trace with chalk)

chalky (composed of or containing or resembling calcium carbonate or calcite or chalk)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An amphetamine derivative (trade name Methedrine) used in the form of a crystalline hydrochloride; used as a stimulant to the nervous system and as an appetite suppressant

Synonyms:

chalk; chicken feed; crank; deoxyephedrine; glass; ice; meth; methamphetamine; methamphetamine hydrochloride; Methedrine; shabu; trash

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("chalk" is a kind of...):

amphetamine; pep pill; speed; upper (a central nervous system stimulant that increases energy and decreases appetite; used to treat narcolepsy and some forms of depression)

controlled substance (a drug or chemical substance whose possession and use are controlled by law)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A pure flat white with little reflectance

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("chalk" is a kind of...):

white; whiteness (the quality or state of the achromatic color of greatest lightness (bearing the least resemblance to black))

Derivation:

chalky (of something having the color of chalk)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A soft whitish calcite

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("chalk" is a kind of...):

calcite (a common mineral consisting of crystallized calcium carbonate; a major constituent of limestone)

Meronyms (substance of "chalk"):

calcium carbonate (a salt found in nature as chalk or calcite or aragonite or limestone)

Holonyms ("chalk" is a substance of...):

chalk (a piece of calcite or a similar substance, usually in the shape of a crayon, that is used to write or draw on blackboards or other flat surfaces)

Derivation:

chalky (of something having the color of chalk)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Write, draw, or trace with chalk

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "chalk" is one way to...):

draw (represent by making a drawing of, as with a pencil, chalk, etc. on a surface)

"Chalk" entails doing...:

delineate; describe; draw; line; trace (make a mark or lines on a surface)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

chalk (a piece of calcite or a similar substance, usually in the shape of a crayon, that is used to write or draw on blackboards or other flat surfaces)

Credits

 Context examples: 

This is not unlike asking an Olympic gymnast to land on Teflon-covered high bars without chalking their hands.

(Researchers study birds to improve how robots land, National Science Foundation)

Some chalk marks over the waistcoat pocket were the only signs of billiards which I could see in one of them.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then the wolf went away to a shopkeeper and bought himself a great lump of chalk, ate this and made his voice soft with it.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Our favourite place was beyond Wolstonbury, where we could stretch ourselves upon the soft, springy, chalk grass among the plump little Southdown sheep, chatting with the shepherds, as they leaned upon their queer old Pyecombe crooks, made in the days when Sussex turned out more iron than all the counties of England.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The two famous Germans stood beside the stone parapet of the garden walk, with the long, low, heavily gabled house behind them, and they looked down upon the broad sweep of the beach at the foot of the great chalk cliff in which Von Bork, like some wandering eagle, had perched himself four years before.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When I opened my computer to set up the chart for the moon landing, my first words to the writer of this saga were wait, the date they chose to go to the moon was so perfect astrologically, it seemed like NASA had help from astrologers (but of course, this was unlikely!) In that case, I have to chalk this up to Divine intervention.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

It is a thousand pities that we have not a reproduction of those which were done in chalk upon the window-sill.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I would retire from teaching, and so find time for my final classification of the chalk fossils.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Listen, then, Jane Eyre, to your sentence: to-morrow, place the glass before you, and draw in chalk your own picture, faithfully, without softening one defect; omit no harsh line, smooth away no displeasing irregularity; write under it, 'Portrait of a Governess, disconnected, poor, and plain.'

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

After that, he slouched over his horse in his usual manner; and made no other reference to the subject except, half an hour afterwards, taking a piece of chalk from his pocket, and writing up, inside the tilt of the cart, Clara Peggotty—apparently as a private memorandum.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)