- caulk something
to fill the holes in something, especially a ship, with a substance that keeps out water 补（船）的漏洞；填（船）缝 Word Originlate Middle English (in the sense ‘copulate’, used of birds): from Old Northern French cauquer, caukier, variant of cauchier ‘tread, press with force’, from Latin calcare ‘tread’, from calx, calc- ‘heel’.