Chalky means dry and slightly powdery to touch or taste. A chalky texture, chalky soil, chalky white.
In wine and in medicine it is a criticism, and in soil it is simply a fact with consequences — chalky ground is alkaline, drains fast and will not grow rhododendrons whatever you do. The chalk downs of southern England are made of compressed sea creatures.
1adjectivechalkyDry and slightly powdery to touch or taste.
“The medicine had a chalky taste that stayed in my mouth all morning.”
chalky is a quality of texture.
Middle English
chalk
English
chalk
English, today
chalky
From chalk + -y. chalk comes from Middle English chalk. Middle English chalk,chalke, from Old English ċealc, from Proto-West Germanic kalk, borrowed from Latin calx (“limestone”), again borrowed from Ancient Greek χάλιξ (“pebble”). a doublet of calx and cauk.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA