checker

English

Alternative forms

• chequer (UK)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtʃɛkə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃɛkɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɛkə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

English check

Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.

Proto-Italic *-āzios

Latin -āriusnom.

Latin -āriusbor.

Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz

Proto-West Germanic *-ārī

Old English -ere

Middle English -ere

English -er

English checker

From check + -er.

Noun

checker (plural checkers)

1. One who or that which checks or verifies something.
   • 1992, Neil J. Salkind, Applying Macintosh: Solutions, Ideas, and Tools, Macmillan Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 205:

     So, keep in mind that Microsoft Word’s Spelling tool is as much a “typo” tool as a checker of spelling.

2. One who makes a check mark.
   • 1989, M. Manfred Fabritius, William Borges, Saving the Savings and Loan:

     "Essentially," said a senior vice president of the FHLBB of Dallas, "we were checkers of boxes."

3. The clerk who tallies cost of purchases and accepts payment.

   There was a long line at the grocery store because the checker was so slow.

   • 1980, Stephen King, The Mist, Viking Press:

     Bud Brown said something to the checker he was supervising; she had been craning around to see what was happening. She flushed and began to run her calculator again.

4. One who hinders or stops something.

Derived terms

• box checker
• fact checker
• grammar checker
• heat checker
• pecker checker
• spell checker
• spell-checker
• spelling checker
• typechecker

Translations

One who checks or verifies something

• Bulgarian: проверител m (proveritel)
• Esperanto: kontrolisto
• Finnish: tarkastaja (fi)
• French: vérificateur (fr) m, vérificatrice (fr) f
• Galician: verificador m, verificadora f
• German: Prüfer (de) m, Prüferin (de) f
• Greek: ελεγκτής (el) (elegktís)
• Russian: контролёр (ru) m (kontroljór), учётчик (ru) m (učótčik), билетёр (ru) m (biletjór) (one who checks entry tickets), че́кер (ru) m (čéker) (neologism, limited usage)
• Spanish: verificador (es) m, verificadora (es) f

The clerk who tallies cost of purchases and accepts payment

• Bulgarian: касиерка f (kasierka), касиер m (kasier)
• Finnish: kassa (fi)
• Greek: ταμίας (el) m or f (tamías)
• Russian: касси́р (ru) m (kassír), касси́рша (ru) f (kassírša)

Etymology 2

From Middle English cheker, aphetic from Anglo-Norman escheker (“chessboard”), from Latin scaccarium, thus ultimately morpheme-for-morpheme cognate to etymology 1.

Noun

checker (plural checkers)

1. A playing piece in the game of checkers (British: draughts), or certain other table games such as backgammon.
2. A pattern of alternating colours as on a chessboard.
3. An individual square appearing in such a pattern.

Derived terms

• bechecker
• checkerboard
• checkerist
• checkerspot
• checkerwise
• checkerwork
• green-white-checker

Related terms

• exchequer

Translations

draught — see draught

Verb

A flag with a checker pattern

checker (third-person singular simple present checkers, present participle checkering, simple past and past participle checkered)

1. (transitive) To mark in a pattern of alternating light and dark positions, like a checkerboard.
   • 1847, Leight Hunt, Men, Women and Books a Selection of Sketches, Essays, and Critical Memoirs from His Uncollected Prose Writing by Leigh Hunt‎^[1], page 288:

     On the other hand, who ever tires of the names of Oldfield, and Bracegirdle, and Woffington? All the flutters of the fans of two centuries, and all the solid merits of bodices and petticoats, come down to us in their names; chequering Covent Garden like chintz, and bringing along with them the periwigged and scented glories of the Congreves and Steeles.

2. (intransitive) To develop markings in a pattern of alternating light and dark positions, like a checkerboard.

Etymology 3

Alteration of chequer.

Noun

checker (plural checkers)

1. The fruit of the wild service tree or chequer tree, Photinia villosa, syn. Sorbus terminalis

Usage notes

• Almost always spelled chequer, because the tree itself is native to areas where that spelling is used, and is pretty much unknown in areas that use the other spelling.

Derived terms

• checkerberry
• checkerbloom
• checkermallow

Anagrams

• recheck

French

Etymology

From English to check.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʃɛ.ke/ ~ /tʃe.ke/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Verb

checker

1. to check, verify
2. (reflexive, reciprocal, slang) to bump fists

Conjugation

Conjugation of checker (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	checker
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	checkant /tʃɛ.kɑ̃/ or /tʃe.kɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		checké /tʃɛ.ke/ or /tʃe.ke/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	checke /tʃɛk/	checkes /tʃɛk/	checke /tʃɛk/	checkons /tʃɛ.kɔ̃/ or /tʃe.kɔ̃/	checkez /tʃɛ.ke/ or /tʃe.ke/	checkent /tʃɛk/
	imperfect	checkais /tʃɛ.kɛ/ or /tʃe.kɛ/	checkais /tʃɛ.kɛ/ or /tʃe.kɛ/	checkait /tʃɛ.kɛ/ or /tʃe.kɛ/	checkions /tʃɛ.kjɔ̃/ or /tʃe.kjɔ̃/	checkiez /tʃɛ.kje/ or /tʃe.kje/	checkaient /tʃɛ.kɛ/ or /tʃe.kɛ/
	past historic2	checkai /tʃɛ.ke/ or /tʃe.ke/	checkas /tʃɛ.ka/ or /tʃe.ka/	checka /tʃɛ.ka/ or /tʃe.ka/	checkâmes /tʃɛ.kam/ or /tʃe.kam/	checkâtes /tʃɛ.kat/ or /tʃe.kat/	checkèrent /tʃɛ.kɛʁ/ or /tʃe.kɛʁ/
	future	checkerai /tʃɛ.kʁe/ or /tʃe.kʁe/	checkeras /tʃɛ.kʁa/ or /tʃe.kʁa/	checkera /tʃɛ.kʁa/ or /tʃe.kʁa/	checkerons /tʃɛ.kʁɔ̃/ or /tʃe.kʁɔ̃/	checkerez /tʃɛ.kʁe/ or /tʃe.kʁe/	checkeront /tʃɛ.kʁɔ̃/ or /tʃe.kʁɔ̃/
	conditional	checkerais /tʃɛ.kʁɛ/ or /tʃe.kʁɛ/	checkerais /tʃɛ.kʁɛ/ or /tʃe.kʁɛ/	checkerait /tʃɛ.kʁɛ/ or /tʃe.kʁɛ/	checkerions /tʃɛ.kə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /tʃe.kə.ʁjɔ̃/	checkeriez /tʃɛ.kə.ʁje/ or /tʃe.kə.ʁje/	checkeraient /tʃɛ.kʁɛ/ or /tʃe.kʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	checke /tʃɛk/	checkes /tʃɛk/	checke /tʃɛk/	checkions /tʃɛ.kjɔ̃/ or /tʃe.kjɔ̃/	checkiez /tʃɛ.kje/ or /tʃe.kje/	checkent /tʃɛk/
	imperfect2	checkasse /tʃɛ.kas/ or /tʃe.kas/	checkasses /tʃɛ.kas/ or /tʃe.kas/	checkât /tʃɛ.ka/ or /tʃe.ka/	checkassions /tʃɛ.ka.sjɔ̃/ or /tʃe.ka.sjɔ̃/	checkassiez /tʃɛ.ka.sje/ or /tʃe.ka.sje/	checkassent /tʃɛ.kas/ or /tʃe.kas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	checke /tʃɛk/	—	checkons /tʃɛ.kɔ̃/ or /tʃe.kɔ̃/	checkez /tʃɛ.ke/ or /tʃe.ke/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Synonyms

• vérifier
• regarder