caulk

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See also: Caulk

English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Northern French cauquer, from Late Latin calicō (“I fill in with limestone, caulk”), from calx (“limestone, chalk”).[1] Related to calx, cauk, chalk, and calculus.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

caulk (countable and uncountable, plural caulks)

  1. Caulking.
  2. A composition of vehicle and pigment used at ambient temperatures for filling/sealing joints or junctures, that remains elastic for an extended period of time after application.
  3. Alternative form of calk (“pointed projection on a horseshoe”)
  4. (nautical, slang) A short sleep; a nap.
    • 1961, Oswald Frewen, Sailor's Soliloquy, page 242:
      […] & we went for a long walk & fatigued ourselves so that I, for one, took a caulk in the afternoon.

Translations[edit]

caulking — see caulking

See also[edit]

Verb[edit]

caulk (third-person singular simple present caulks, present participle caulking, simple past and past participle caulked)

  1. (nautical) To drive oakum into the seams of a ship's wooden deck or hull to make it watertight.
    • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 112:
      [W]e might be disturbed during the night by an order being given to "go about," and by hearing in the quiet hours of the morning the familiar inquiry of "How's her head?" Mine often ached with the din of the men caulking all day long!
  2. To apply caulking to joints, cracks, or a juncture of different materials.
  3. (slang) To copulate.
  4. (nautical, slang) To take a short sleep; to nap.
    • 1829, William Nugent Glascock, Sailors and Saints: Or Matrimonial Manœvres, page 179:
      There was the goggle-eyed daughter a blowing the Grampus [throwing a bucket of water upon a person] with the platter-faced planter, whenever he caulked upon deck; […]
    • 1897, Herbert Elliott Hamblen, William Stone Booth, On Many Seas: The Life and Exploits of a Yankee Sailor, page 40:
      […] and as sleep is about the only thing there is for a sailor at sea to get in the way of recreation, he prizes it accordingly and gets all he can. It is technically called "caulking," and a man will brag of having "caulked" the whole four hours of his watch on deck […]

Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “caulk”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams[edit]

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