| E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898. |
| | | Chalk. | | |
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I’ll chalk out your path for you—i.e. lay it down or plan it out as a carpenter or ship-builder plans out his work with a piece of chalk. | 1 |
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I can walk a chalk as well as you. I am no more drunk than you are. The allusion is to the ordeal on board ship of trying men suspected of drunkenness. They were required to walk along a line chalked on the deck, without deviating to the right or left. | 2 |
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The tapster is undone by chalk, i.e. credit. The allusion is to scoring up credit on a tally with chalk. This was common enough early in the nineteenth century, when milk scores, bread scores, as well as beer scores were general. | 3 |
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Chalk it up. Put it to his credit. | 4 |
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 As good-humoured sarcasm, Chalk it up! is tantamount to saying, “What you have done so astonishes me that I must make some more or less permanent record of it.” |
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