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Gammerstang commented on the word long chalks
(pl. noun) - To beat a person "by long chalks" is with plenty to spare. Allusion is perhaps here made to the custom of jumping and other competitions to mark the distances attained by the competitors by chalk marks, the idea being herein conveyed that the victor's marks are a long way in front of his rival's. Or the expression may have originated in a game, general in Derbyshire and elsewhere, in which the player with a lump of chalk reached, or "wrained," round his right leg and stretching his arm as far as possible made a mark along the ground. The winner of the game was he who made the most distant or "longest" chalk. --A. Wallace's Popular Sayings Dissected, 1895
January 27, 2018