▪ I. cauk, n. Obs. and dial.
(kɔːk)
Also 5–6 calk(e, 7–8 cauke, (8 calk, 9 caulk, cawk).
[Cf. Du. kalk, MDu. calc; OHG. chalch, MHG. calch, calc, mod.G. kalk; also OE. cealc (:—*cælc, *calc); see chalk. It is not clear whether calk, cauk is simply the northern form of chalk, or adopted independently from Du. or Low German.]
1. = chalk (dial.).
† 2. Lime. Obs.
3. ? Calc spar.
4. Barytes, or heavy spar: see cawk.
(The quotations cannot easily be separated, but 1653–1729 are app. in sense 4.)
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 58 Calke or chalke, erye, calx, creta. c 1475 Voc. in Wr-Wülcker 769 Hec cals, a calkestone. 1483 Cath. Angl. 51 Calke, creta, calx. 1536 Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1821) I. Introd. 19 This Ile wes callit Albion..fra the quhit montanis thairof, full of calk. 1641 French Distill. v. (1651) 154 Take very strong lime, such as the dyers use, and call cauke. 1653 E. Manlove Lead-mines 265 (E.D.S.) Cauke, Sparr, Lid-Stones, Twitches, Daulings and Pees. 1684–5 Boyle Min. Waters 21 Other Ingredient as Spar, Cauke, Sulphur, Orpiment, Arsenick. 1699 De la Pryme Diary (Surtees) 212 Four-squair bitts of brick, slate and cauk, set in curious figueres. 1724 Ramsay Tea-t. Misc. (1733) I. 87 Wi' cauk and keel I'll win your bread. 1729 Martyn in Phil. Trans. XXXVI. 31 Cauk..Dr. Woodward says is a coarse talky Spar. 1816 W. Smith Strata Ident. 10 A singular variety..is there called red caulk. 1851 Tapping Gloss. Manlove's Chron. (E.D.S.) Calk, calc, cauke, or calcareous spar, is the base mineral constituting with brownhen, etc. the deads or rubbish of a quick vein. |
▪ II. † cauk, v.1 Obs.
Also 5 kauke, 6–7 cawk.
[a. ONF. caukier, cauquer (mod.Picard coker, F. côcher):—L. calcāre to tread.]
intr. To tread, to copulate as birds. Hence ˈcauking vbl. n.
(Quots. 1486–1575 are difficult: cf. cawk v. to call as some birds.)
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xi. 350 Some bryddes at þe bille þorwgh brethynge conceyued; And some kauked. 1393 Ibid. C. xv. 162 He [kynde] tauhte þe tortle to trede, þe pokok to cauke. 1486 Bk. St. Albans A ij a, Hawkis..in the tyme of their loue call and not kauke. 1575 Turberv. Falconrie 21 When the Eagle beginneth to growe to lyking neare cawking or calling time. 1675 Phil. Trans. X. 466 Her natural male dares not sit by her [the Peregrine falcon]..but only in cawking time. 1704 Worlidge Dict. Rust. et Urb. Cawking-time, by this in the Art of Faulconry is meant Hawk's treading-time. |
▪ III. cauk, cawk, v.2 Sc.
To chalk.
| 1725 Ramsay Gentle Sheph. iv. i, I'll cawk my face..and shake my head. 1862 in Hislop Prov. Scot. 223 Ye're cawking the claith, ere the wab be in the loom. |
▪ IV. cauk
variant of calk v.2, to rough-shoe.