Not by a long chalk

“Not by a long chalk’ is a 19th century expression that originated in Canada but first became commonplace in England. It is the equivalent of the variant that is more used in the USA – ‘not by a long shot’.

The chalk that is referred to is that used to mark up scores in pub games and at horse races.

The first person to put the expression into print was the Canadian writer Thomas Chandler Haliburton in The Clockmaker, 1835:

The there’s the great Daniel Webster, it’s generally allowed he’s the greatest orator on the face of the airth [Earth], by a long chalk.

The phrase is used several times in the book. Haliburton was an enthusiastic coiner of street slang expressions and there’s every reason to believe this was his own invention. He emigrated to England about twenty years later and it may be that the usage of ‘by a long chalk’ came with him or, more probably, the English began reading his books.

‘By a long chalk’ now only ever appears in the negative, like ‘laughing matter‘, ‘rest for the wicked‘ and ‘all the tea in China‘.