英语词汇walk the chalk的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

词汇	walk the chalk
词源	walk the chalk. As far back as the 17th century it was cus- tomary in the American navy for a straight line to be drawn along the deck of a ship as a test for drunkenness. Any sailor who couldn’t walk the whole line, placing each foot on it in turn, was adjudged drunk and punished accordingly—often by flogging. Thus, to walk the chalk, first recorded in 1823, came to mean to walk a line of sobriety, to obey the rules.
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