chalk up

verb

chalked up; chalking up; chalks up

transitive verb

1

: ascribe, credit

chalked up his failures to inexperience

2

: attain, achieve

chalk up another victory

Synonyms

• accredit
• ascribe
• attribute
• credit
• impute
• lay
• put down

Examples of chalk up in a Sentence

let's chalk up her weird behavior to simple nervousness

chalked up a record in singles tennis that is likely to stand for a long time

Recent Examples on the Web

The OpenAI leader chalked up Musk’s potential xAI boosterism as mere competition. —Melvin Backman, Quartz, 5 Dec. 2024

Many observers chalked up Georgescu’s success to his TikTok account, which now has 5.8 million likes and 527,000 followers. —Kelvin Chan and Stephen McGrath, Los Angeles Times, 3 Dec. 2024

Following her early successes, Ronan has chalked up a total of four Oscar nominations along with five BAFTA nominations and a Golden Globe. —Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 18 Nov. 2024

After Denver got steamrolled by the Ravens in Week 9, allowing 396 total yards, Allen confidently said the team would bounce back, chalking up their 41-10 loss as just one bad day. —Ryan McFadden, The Denver Post, 17 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1877, in the meaning defined at sense 2