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definitions

checker

1
[chek-er]
|
SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR checker ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a small, usually red or black disk of plastic or wood, used in playing checkers.
checkers,
  1. Also called, British, draughts.(used with a singular verb)a game played by two persons, each with 12 playing pieces, on a checkerboard.
  2. (in a regenerative furnace) loosely stacked brickwork through which furnace gases and incoming air are passed in turn, so that the heat of the exhaust is absorbed and later transferred to the incoming air.
a checkered pattern.
one of the squares of a checkered pattern.

verb (used with object)

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detective, monitor, investigator, auditor, controller, patchwork, inspector, appraiser, interrogator, inquisitor, sleuth, overseer, reviewer, tester, scrutinizer, assessor, plaid, variegation, motley, tessellation
Also British, che·quer.

Origin of checker

1
1250–1300; Middle English checker chessboard < Anglo-French escheker (by aphesis), equivalent to eschec check1 + -er -er2

checker

2
[chek-er]

noun

a person or thing that checks.
a cashier, as in a supermarket or cafeteria.
a person who checks coats, baggage, etc.

Origin of checker

2
First recorded in 1525–35; check1 + -er1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for checker

Historical Examples of checker

  • "That's the checker, my boy," said Yellow Pine, when he saw the fish.

    Two Arrows

    William O. Stoddard

  • Frankston, with a violent gesture, swept the checker board clean.

    Homesick

    Lyn Venable

  • The checker pigs had checker bibs on, the striped pigs had striped bibs on.

    Rootabaga Stories

    Carl Sandburg

  • "That's the checker," she said, and disappeared with a click of the tongue.

    A Spoil of Office

    Hamlin Garland

  • As he handed them to the checker, he looked casually around.

    The Penal Cluster

    Ivar Jorgensen (AKA Randall Garrett)

British Dictionary definitions for checker

checker

1

noun, verb

the usual US spelling of chequer

noun

textiles a variant spelling of chequer (def. 2)
US and Canadian any one of the 12 flat thick discs used by each player in the game of checkersAlso called (in Britain and certain other countries): draughtsman

checker

2

noun mainly US and Canadian

a cashier, esp in a supermarket
an attendant in a cloakroom, left-luggage office, etc
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for checker
n.1

mid-13c., "game of chess (or checkers);" c.1300, "a chessboard, board with 64 squares for playing chess or similar games; a set of chessmen" a shortening of Old French eschequier "chessboard; a game of chess," from Medieval Latin scaccarium (see check (n.)).

Meaning "pattern of squares" is late 14c. Meaning "a man or marker in the game of checkers" is from 1864. British prefers chequer. From late 14c. as "a checked design." The word had earlier senses of "table covered with checked cloth for counting" (late 12c. in Anglo-Latin), a sense also in Old French (see checker (n.2)).

v.

"to ornament with a checked or chackered design," late 14c. (implied in checkered), from Old French eschequeré and from checker (n.1). Related: Checkering.

n.2

"table covered with a checked cloth," specialized sense of checker (n.1), late 14c. (in Anglo-Latin from c.1300); especially a table for counting money or keeping accounts (revenue reckoned with counters); later extended to "the fiscal department of the English Crown; the Exchequer (mid-14c.; in Anglo-Latin from late 12c.).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper