- [uncountable] a type of soft white stone
- the chalk cliffs of southern England
Oxford Collocations Dictionarychalk + noun- bed
- cliff
- downs
- …
- chalk and cheese
- [uncountable, countable] a substance similar to chalk made into white or coloured sticks for writing or drawing
- a piece/stick of chalk
- drawing diagrams with chalk on the blackboard
- a box of coloured chalks
Extra ExamplesTopics Educationc1- She had scrawled a note in chalk across the blackboard.
- to write with chalk
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- coloured/colored
- white
- sidewalk
- …
- piece
- stick
- drawing
- line
- mark
- …
- in chalk
- with chalk
Word OriginOld English cealc (also denoting lime), related to Dutch kalk and German Kalk, from Latin calx, ‘lime’, probably from Greek khalix ‘pebble, limestone’.
Idioms
See chalk in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarychalk and cheese
- (British English) if two people or things are like chalk and cheese or as different as chalk and cheese, they are completely different from each other
- Frank and I will never get along. We’re chalk and cheese.
- My two horses are as different as chalk and cheese.
More Like This Alliteration in idiomsAlliteration in idioms- belt and braces
- black and blue
- born and bred
- chalk and cheese
- chop and change
- done and dusted
- down and dirty
- in dribs and drabs
- eat somebody out of house and home
- facts and figures
- fast and furious
- first and foremost
- forgive and forget
- hale and hearty
- hem and haw
- kith and kin
- mix and match
- part and parcel
- puff and pant
- to rack and ruin
- rant and rave
- risk life and limb
- short and sweet
- signed and sealed
- spick and span
- through thick and thin
- this and that
- top and tail
- tried and tested
- wax and wane
not by a long chalk (British English)
(also not by a long shot North American English, British English)
- not nearly; not at all
- It's not over yet—not by a long chalk.
Check pronunciation:
chalk