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Chalk vs Chark - What's the difference?

chalk | chark |

As nouns the difference between chalk and chark

is that chalk is (uncountable) a soft, white, powdery limestone while chark is charcoal; coke.

As verbs the difference between chalk and chark

is that chalk is to apply chalk to anything, such as the tip of a billiard cue while chark is to reduce by strong heat, as to produce charcoal or coke; to calcine.

chalk

English

Alternative forms

* chaulk (dated)

Noun

  • (uncountable) A soft, white, powdery limestone.
  • (countable) A piece of chalk, or, more often, processed compressed chalk, that is used for drawing and for writing on a blackboard.
  • Tailor's chalk.
  • (uncountable, climbing) A white powdery substance used to prevent hands slipping from holds when climbing, sometimes but not always limestone-chalk.
  • (US, military, countable) A platoon-sized group of airborne soldiers.
  • (US, sports, chiefly, basketball) The prediction that there will be no upsets, and the favored competitor will win.
  • * {{quote-news, 1982, March 22, Phil Musick, And the pick here is - Georgetown over Houston, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette citation
    • , passage=OK, let's get rid of the chalk' players right away. The ' chalk likes North Carolina. Dean Smith has taken Carolina to the Final Four six times.}}
  • * {{quote-news, 1995, April 6, , Notes on a Scorecard, Los Angeles Times citation
    • , passage=Excuse us for sticking with the chalk , but the predicted winners are Afternoon Deelites in the Derby, Oliver McCall over Larry Holmes, Nick Faldo in the Masters, and Al Unser Jr. in the Grand Prix.}}
  • * {{quote-news, 2008, March 24, Jason Bauman, Non-news of the week: Obama picks North Carolina, Beacon-News, city=Aurora, Illinois citation
    • , passage=Instead, he played the chalk and selected the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament.}}

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To apply chalk to anything, such as the tip of a billiard cue.
  • To record something, as on a blackboard, using chalk.
  • To use powdered chalk to mark the lines on a playing field.
  • (figuratively) To record a score or event, as if on a chalkboard.
  • To manure (land) with chalk.
    • (Mortimer)
  • To make white, as if with chalk; to make pale; to bleach.
    • (Tennyson)
  • * Herbert
    • Let a bleak paleness chalk the door.

    Derived terms

    * chalk up to * chalky * different as chalk and cheese * chalk line * by a long chalk

    Related terms

    * calcium * calx * chalkboard

    See also

    * (wikipedia) * *

    chark

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Charcoal; coke.
  • * 1719 , ,
    • ... so I contrived to burn some wood here, as I had seen done in England, under turf, till it became chark or dry coal ...
  • A pointed stick, which when placed with the point against another piece of wood, and spun rapidly in alternate directions with the aid of attached cords, produces enough heat by friction to create a fire; a fire-drill.
  • * 1872 , Charles Hardwick, Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-lore ,
    • The discoverer of the chark , or " fire-drill," an instrument for obtaining fire by artificial means, would be so great a benefactor to a people that had to suffer all the inconveniences resulting from occasional fireless hearths, that we may well understand why he may be invested by his astonished and delighted fellow-savages with miraculous or supernatural powers.
  • (US, Alaska) A wine glass.
  • * 2006 , Phyllis Downing Carlson and Laurel Downing Bill, Aunt Phil's Trunk: Early Alaska ,
    • At noon, each man got his half-chark (a wine glass) full of rum and a four-quart iron pot of fish soup made from salt salmon, potatoes and graham flour ... in the evening another half chark of rum and 20 cents as pay for the day's work.
  • A variety of hunting bird.
  • * 1856 , Austen Henry Layard, Discoveries among the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon , 2nd Edition,
    • A good chark will sometimes take as many as eight or ten bustards or five or six gazelles in the course of a morning.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To reduce by strong heat, as to produce charcoal or coke; to calcine.
  • * 1749 , John Lowthorp, Royal Society of Great Britain, The Philosophical Transactions and Collections to the end of the year MDCC , 5th Edition,
    • I have ?een Turf chark''d, and then it ?erves to work Iron, and, as I have been inform'd will ?erve to make it in a Bloomery or Iron-work. Turf ' chark' d I reckon the ?weete?t and whole?ome?t Fire that can be, fitter for a Chamber and con?umptive People, than either Wood, Stone-Coal or Charcoal.
  • * 1771 , John Whitaker, The History of Manchester , Volume 1,
    • The method which the Romans now taught them of charking the coal continues e??entially the ?ame until the pre?ent moment.
  • (Scotland) To make a grating sound.
  • * 1820 , Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine , Volume 7,
    • The hoarse charking conversation which they carried on was calculated to support the delusion.