checker1
- 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 checker1
Examples from the Web for chequers
Contemporary Examples
Is one meant to infer that he began to write on his return from Chequers, and was interrupted; or is it a slip?
Ostensibly the letter thanks her for letting him interrupt her weekend at Chequers.
When will we discover what was really discussed between Cameron and James when they met at Chequers in November 2010?
We now know the details of the meetings between Murdoch and Thatcher at her country residence in Chequers in 1981.
The next time we saw the Bushes was at Chequers a month or so later.
Historical Examples
Fid-fad, a game similar to chequers, or drafts, played in the West of England.
The Slang DictionaryJohn Camden Hotten
Chequers should be avoided unless they express a meaning, as in Scotch tartans.
Needlework As ArtMarian Alford
Often it was seat, coffer, and table in one, with chequers inlaid on the top for chess.
Arts and Crafts EssaysVarious
It would appear that Sir Anthony was a gentleman of some standing at the Chequers.
The Black MothGeorgette Heyer
The evening passes among the old people, with chequers and back-gammon.
Gifts of GeniusVarious
chequers
- (functioning as singular) another name for draughts
Chequers
- an estate and country house in S England, in central Buckinghamshire: the official country residence of the British prime minister
checker1
- 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
checker2
- a cashier, esp in a supermarket
- an attendant in a cloakroom, left-luggage office, etc
Word Origin and History for chequers
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
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.).