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

Any other symptoms, McKee said, were chalked up to her ongoing menstrual struggles. —Cara Lynn Shultz, People.com, 23 May 2025

Executives chalk up Mulan's earnings to the pandemic and the outlet reported that Christopher Robin was considerably less expensive to make. —Jenna Dejong, MSNBC Newsweek, 13 May 2025

And they’re being chalked up to figments of a patient’s hallucination! —Emma Specter, Vogue, 11 Apr. 2025

Perhaps all of this can be chalked up to establishing leverage for better deals in negotiations — taking Greenland, or at least getting functional control of it, ... —Rich Lowry, National Review, 2 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1877, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Rhymes for chalk up

• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup
• markup