checkup
Americannoun
-
a comprehensive physical examination.
He went to the doctor for a checkup.
-
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.
See Examples For:
In the Fix My Portfolio column, Beth Pinsker provided advice for a four-point midyear money checkup.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 26, 2026
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
In France, they call her in for a checkup, and they give her a scan.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 27, 2026
Once asleep, he was given a final medical checkup, fitted with a radio tracking collar, and, after a night in the hospital, transported to the release site.
From "Camp Panda" by Catherine Thimmesh
But the appointment arrives amid continued public discussion surrounding Trump’s physical condition, stamina, and increasingly frequent medical checkups.
From Salon ● May 25, 2026
Doctors recommend getting a urine test during annual checkups, and some individuals may want to ask a partner or family member for help monitoring changes.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 10, 2026
We’re a long way from Norman Rockwell’s Saturday Evening Post portraits of doting parents taking their rosy-cheeked children to the avuncular family doctor for back-to-school checkups.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 23, 2026
Taleb said trips to repair his artificial leg and attend medical checkups cost around US$80 -- an impossible burden for a family struggling to survive.
From Barron's ● Jan. 6, 2026
Her eyes had dark circles under them, but Ivy remembered from the few checkups she went to with Mom that there was always a bit of a shadow there.
From "Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World" by Ashley Herring Blake
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.
