checker

[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,

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.

verb (used with object)

to mark like a checkerboard.

to diversify in color; variegate.

to diversify in character; subject to alternations: Sorrow and joy have checkered his life.

Also British, che·quer.

Origin of checker

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

checker

[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

First recorded in 1525–35; check¹ + -er¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for checker

detective, monitor, investigator, auditor, controller, patchwork, inspector, appraiser, interrogator, inquisitor, sleuth, overseer, reviewer, tester, scrutinizer, assessor, plaid, variegation, motley, tessellation

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

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

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)).

"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.).