walk your chalk
Preserved but no longer current.
Get you gone. Lodgings wanted for the royal retinue used to be taken arbitrarily by the marshal and sergeant- chamberlain, the inhabitants were sent to the right about, and the houses selected were notified by a chalk mark.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “walk your chalk” mean?
Get you gone. Lodgings wanted for the royal retinue used to be taken arbitrarily by the marshal and sergeant- chamberlain, the inhabitants were sent to the right about, and the houses selected were notified by a chalk mark.
Is “walk your chalk” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.