checker
1- a small, usually red or black disk of plastic or wood, used in playing checkers.
- checkers,
- Also called, British, draughts.(used with a singular verb)a game played by two persons, each with 12 playing pieces, on a checkerboard.
- (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.
- to mark like a checkerboard.
- to diversify in color; variegate.
- to diversify in character; subject to alternations: Sorrow and joy have checkered his life.
Origin of checker
1checker
2- a person or thing that checks.
- a cashier, as in a supermarket or cafeteria.
- a person who checks coats, baggage, etc.
Origin of checker
2Related Words for checker
detective, monitor, investigator, auditor, controller, patchwork, inspector, appraiser, interrogator, inquisitor, sleuth, overseer, reviewer, tester, scrutinizer, checker, assessor, plaid, variegation, motleyExamples from the Web for checker
Historical Examples of checker
"That's the checker, my boy," said Yellow Pine, when he saw the fish.
Two ArrowsWilliam O. Stoddard
Frankston, with a violent gesture, swept the checker board clean.
HomesickLyn Venable
The checker pigs had checker bibs on, the striped pigs had striped bibs on.
Rootabaga StoriesCarl Sandburg
"That's the checker," she said, and disappeared with a click of the tongue.
A Spoil of OfficeHamlin Garland
As he handed them to the checker, he looked casually around.
The Penal ClusterIvar Jorgensen (AKA Randall Garrett)
checker
1- the usual US spelling of chequer
- 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- a cashier, esp in a supermarket
- an attendant in a cloakroom, left-luggage office, etc
Word Origin and History for checker
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)).
"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.).