Word.ws English Dictionary

chalk something up to experience

chalk something up to experience verb: to take a lesson from a bad outcome instead of grieving it.

Verb

chalk something up to experience (third-person singular simple present chalks something up to experience, present participle chalking something up to experience, simple past and past participle chalked something up to experience)

  1. (idiomatic) To take a lesson from a bad outcome instead of grieving it.
    • However, if the amounts are small and you've exhausted your personal resources, you can chalk it up to experience and write it off at the end of the year. (I did this on several small checks returned for insufficient funds.)1990, Michele Loftus, How to Start and Operate a Home-based Word Processing Or Desktop Publishing Business, Adams Media Corporation, →ISBN
    • When I am scammed, I take my lumps and chalk it up to experience. I then use all my resources and skills to destroy those involved in committing the scam.2009 December 7, Michael Anthony, Memoirs of a White Man, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 71
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see chalk up to, experience.

Synonyms of chalk something up to experience

Forms of chalk something up to experience

third-person singular presentchalks something up to experience
present participlechalking something up to experience
past participlechalked something up to experience
pastchalked something up to experience

Questions about chalk something up to experience

What does chalk something up to experience mean?
Chalk something up to experience means to take a lesson from a bad outcome instead of grieving it.
What part of speech is chalk something up to experience?
Chalk something up to experience is a verb.
What is the past tense of chalk something up to experience?
The past tense of chalk something up to experience is chalked something up to experience.

Words near chalk something up to experience in the dictionary

  1. chalk mixtures
  2. chalk off
  3. chalk out
  4. chalk player
  5. chalk players
  6. chalk something up to experience
  7. chalk stream
  8. chalk streams
  9. chalk stripe
  10. chalk talk
  11. chalk talks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chalk something up to experience (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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