Chalk up

verb, slang

verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To achieve something. transitive

    "2012 The Economist, Sep 29th 2012 issue, Rural activism: Working the system In recent years Mr Li, a divorced farmer with a laptop and internet access, has chalked up some stunning successes in resisting his village officials."

  2. 2
    keep score, as in games wordnet
  3. 3
    To assign a debt to someone. Australia, archaic, slang

    "Give me another drink and chalk it up to John."

  4. 4
    accumulate, sometimes as a debt wordnet
  5. 5
    To attribute to something, often tangentially. US, slang

    "I know we lost, but can we chalk it up as a win?"

Synonyms

All synonyms
acquireannexblazeblaze a trailblemishblotch

Example

More examples

"2012 The Economist, Sep 29th 2012 issue, Rural activism: Working the system In recent years Mr Li, a divorced farmer with a laptop and internet access, has chalked up some stunning successes in resisting his village officials."

Etymology

Probably from the fact that many problems were figured out using chalk on a chalk board.

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