chalk up to

present singular third person chalks up to · participle present chalking up to · participle past chalked up to · past chalked up to

1. idiomatictransitiveTo attribute or account for something; to ascribe.

   Chalk it up to fear that he didn't finish.

   2 more examples

   “You can chalk it up maybe to, as one of my friends says, a nautical superstition,” he said. “Maybe I read too many Greek tragedies. I don't believe something’s going to happen like that until it’s happened.

   1990 October 5, “Souter plans to get right down to work”, in Fort Worth Star-Telegram, volume 85, number 154, section 1, page 14

   Some of the best pre-mortems for Steve Ballmer, out-going CEO of Microsoft, have chalked up the company's problem to the "innovator's dilemma."

   2013 August 28, Derek Thompson, “How Goliaths Beat Themselves: Microsoft's Mobile Failure and the Innovator's Dilemma”, in The Atlantic

   Synonyms: accredit, impute, put down to, accredit, ascribe, attach, attribute, charge