To seal the seams of a ship with caulking material (oakum and pitch) to make it watertight; an alternative spelling of caulk.
From Old French calquer, related to Latin calcare (to tread down), since caulking involves pressing material into seams; also spelled caulk in modern English.
Before modern shipbuilding, a ship's watertightness depended entirely on sailors pounding rope fibers and pitch into seams—a tedious, essential skill that made or broke ocean voyages.
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