chalk up to

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

chalk (something) up to (third-person singular simple present chalks up to, present participle chalking up to, simple past and past participle chalked up to)

1. (transitive, idiomatic) To attribute or account for something; to ascribe.

   Chalk it up to fear that he didn't finish.

   • 1990 October 5, “Souter plans to get right down to work”, in Fort Worth Star-Telegram, volume 85, number 154, section 1, page 14:

     “You can chalk it up maybe to, as one of my friends says, a nautical superstition,” he said. “Maybe I read too many Greek tragedies. I don't believe something’s going to happen like that until it’s happened.

   • 2013 August 28, Derek Thompson, “How Goliaths Beat Themselves: Microsoft's Mobile Failure and the Innovator's Dilemma”, in The Atlantic‎^[1]:

     Some of the best pre-mortems for Steve Ballmer, out-going CEO of Microsoft, have chalked up the company's problem to the "innovator's dilemma."

Synonyms

• put down to

Translations

idiomatic: to attribute something to something

• Catalan: atribuir (ca)
• Czech: přisoudit (cs) pf, přičíst (cs) pf co čemu
• Dutch: toeschrijven (nl)
• Finnish: laittaa jonkin piikkiin, syyttää (fi)
• French: mettre sur le compte de, attribuer la responsabilité, attribuer le mérite
• Galician: atribuír (gl)
• Italian: incolpare (it), dare la responsabilità a, attribuire (it), ascrivere (it), addebitare (it), addossare la colpa su
• Portuguese: atribuir (pt)
• Russian: приписать (ru) pf (pripisatʹ)
• Spanish: atribuir (es)