chalk » chock

Chiefly in:   chock (it) up (to)

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • “Chock it up to just another amateur exhibition of a lack of administrative ability,” said Georgia pollster Claibourne Darden. (John King, Associated Press, The Daily Gazette, Schenectady, NY, June 4, 1993)
  • Chock it up to the wildly popular Visa check card, which accounts for about one-third of all Visa dollar growth volume. (San Francisco Business Times, Mar. 26, 2003)
  • Chock it up to competition — that’s the American way. (Joel Widzer, MSNBC.com Travel Tips, Sep. 14, 2005)
  • I chocked that up to a waiter with a serious chip on his shoulder. (Algene, Washington City Paper restaurant rater review, Feb. 24, 2006)
  • With such a worldview, individual success and happiness could only be chocked up to positive inborn traits and fortuitous circumstances. (Carl O'Donnell, Yahoo! AssociatedContent, Aug. 24 2010)
  • As easy as it would be to blame ourselves, quit the investigation before it begins and chock it up to a simple, self-deprecating condemnation - this time we may just be spared. (Andy Collier, The Post, Ohio University, Sep. 15, 2010)
  • This feeling has pervaded the franchise and its fan base for almost a quarter of a century and the mystery behind its cause has been philosophically chocked up to the ineffable, existential pain of being the “other baseball team” in town. (Thornton McEnery, New York Observer, Sep. 1, 2011)

Analyzed or reported by:

See also chalk » chuck, chock » chalk(ed).

| link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2011/09/03 |

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