Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.
calkings
plural of calking
• Glackins, lackings, slacking
Source: Wiktionary
Calk"ing, n.
Definition: The act or process of making seems tight, as in ships, or of furnishing with calks, as a shoe, or copying, as a drawing. Calking iron, a tool like a chisel, used in calking ships, tightening seams in ironwork, etc. Their left hand does the calking iron guide. Dryden.
Calk, v. t. [imp. &p. p. Calked; p. pr. & vb. n. Calking.] Etym: [Either corrupted fr. F. calfater (cf. Pg. calafetar, Sp. calafetear), fr. Ar. qalafa to fill up crevices with the fibers of palm tree or moss; or fr. OE. cauken to tred, through the French fr. L. calcare, fr. calx heel. Cf. Calk to copy, Inculcate.]
1. To drive tarred oakum into the seams between the planks of (a ship, boat, etc.), to prevent leaking. The calking is completed by smearing the seams with melted pitch.
2. To make an indentation in the edge of a metal plate, as along a seam in a steam boiler or an iron ship, to force the edge of the upper plate hard against the lower and so fill the crevice.
Calk, v. t. Etym: [E.calquer to trace, It. caicare to trace, to trample, fr. L. calcare to trample, fr. calx heel. Cf. Calcarate.]
Definition: To copy, as a drawing, by rubbing the back of it with red or black chalk, and then passing a blunt style or needle over the lines, so as to leave a tracing on the paper or other thing against which it is laid or held. [Writting also calque]
Calk, n. Etym: [Cf. AS calc shoe, hoof, L. calx, calcis, hel, cälcar, spur.]
1. A sharp-pointed piece or iron or steel projecting downward on the shoe of a nore or an ox, to prevent the animal from slipping; -- called also calker, calkin.
2. An instrument with sharp points, worn on the sole of a shoe or boot, to prevent slipping.
Calk, v. i.
1. To furnish with calks, to prevent slipping on ice; as, to calk the shoes of a horse or an ox.
2. To wound with a calk; as when a horse injures a leg or a foot with a calk on one of the other feet.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
3 May 2025
(adjective) worth having or seeking or achieving; “a desirable job”; “computer with many desirable features”; “a desirable outcome”
Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.