caulk

plural caulks · alternative calk

1. countableuncountableCaulking.
2. countableuncountableA composition of vehicle and pigment used at ambient temperatures for filling/sealing joints or junctures, that remains elastic for an extended period of time after application.
3. alternativecountableuncountableAlternative form of calk (“pointed projection on a horseshoe”).
4. countableslanguncountablenauticalA short sleep; a nap.

   […] & we went for a long walk & fatigued ourselves so that I, for one, took a caulk in the afternoon.

   1961, Oswald Frewen, Sailor's Soliloquy, page 242

present singular third person caulks · participle present caulking · participle past caulked · past caulked · alternative calk

1. nauticalTo drive oakum into the seams of a ship's wooden deck or hull to make it watertight.

   [W]e might be disturbed during the night by an order being given to "go about," and by hearing in the quiet hours of the morning the familiar inquiry of "How's her head?" Mine often ached with the din of the men caulking all day long!

   1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 112

2. businessTo apply caulking to joints, cracks, or a juncture of different materials.
3. slangTo copulate.
4. slangnauticalTo take a short sleep; to nap.

   There was the goggle-eyed daughter a blowing the Grampus [throwing a bucket of water upon a person] with the platter-faced planter, whenever he caulked upon deck; […]

   1829, William Nugent Glascock, Sailors and Saints: Or Matrimonial Manœvres, page 179

   1 more example

   […] and as sleep is about the only thing there is for a sailor at sea to get in the way of recreation, he prizes it accordingly and gets all he can. It is technically called "caulking," and a man will brag of having "caulked" the whole four hours of his watch on deck […]

   1897, Herbert Elliott Hamblen, William Stone Booth, On Many Seas: The Life and Exploits of a Yankee Sailor, page 40

plural Caulks

1. A surname.