checker

[chek-er]

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)

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

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for chequer

Historical Examples of chequer

For, in his view, he was the Company; and its Board did but exist to chequer his importance.
Five Tales
John Galsworthy
How strange a chequer work of Providence is the life of man!
The Children's Hour, v 5. Stories From Seven Old Favorites
Eva March Tappan
The stalks, and blades, Chequer my tablet with their, quivering shades.
Poems 1817
John Keats
They catch the dipped oar with long antenn, and chequer the slimy bottom with the shadow of their leaves.
The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. XXII (of 25)
Robert Louis Stevenson
He never will glory in belonging to the Chequer No. 71, or to any other badge-ticket.
Selections from the Speeches and Writings of Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke

British Dictionary definitions for chequer

chequer

US checker

noun

any of the marbles, pegs, or other pieces used in the game of Chinese chequers
1. a pattern consisting of squares of different colours, textures, or materials
2. one of the squares in such a pattern

verb (tr)

to make irregular in colour or character; variegate
to mark off with alternating squares of colour

Word Origin for chequer

C13: chessboard, from Anglo-French escheker, from eschec check

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 chequer

see checker (n.2).

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)).

checker

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

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.).