checkup
Americannoun
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a comprehensive physical examination.
He went to the doctor for a checkup.
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an examination or close scrutiny, as for verification, accuracy, or comparison.
They gave the motor a checkup.
noun
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an examination to see if something is in order
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med a medical examination, esp one taken at regular intervals to verify a normal state of health or discover a disease in its early stages
verb
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of checkup
1885–90, noun use of verb phrase check up
Explanation
When your doctor gives you a physical exam, you can call it a checkup. During a checkup, you'll probably be weighed and have your blood pressure taken. You might get a yearly checkup at your doctor's office, or go in for a checkup after a minor car accident, just to make sure you're okay. A routine visit to the dentist is also a checkup. The word checkup first appeared around 1920, from the idea that a doctor has a checklist of things to test or examine.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Most presidential check-up reports, though, contain details of mundane ailments: "Doctors removed a precancerous skin lesion from the tip of his nose", reads a New York Times report on Bill Clinton's annual checkup from 1996.
From BBC • May 30, 2026
At a routine 20-week checkup, however, she learned that she was suffering from preterm premature rupture of membranes and that her baby would not survive.
From Slate • May 4, 2026
He expected to get an update when he went back in two weeks for a checkup.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 17, 2026
This Tuesday’s employment report gives them a long-awaited look at two months of payroll data and provides a checkup on an already fragile labor market.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 15, 2025
At one checkup in the spring of 2005, his blood pressure and his weight had been a little high.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
