| 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. |