▪ I. chequer, checker, n.1
(ˈtʃɛkə(r))
Forms: 3–5 chekere, 4–7 cheker, 4 scheker, 4–5 chekyr, chekir, checkere, 5 chekyre, chekur, chekker(e, chekkare, Sc. chakkere, (checher), 7 Sc. chaker, 7–9 checquer, 6– checker, 4– chequer.
[ME. cheker, aphetic f. ME. and AF. escheker, a. OF. eschekier (= ONF. eskekier, Pr. escaquier, It. scacchiere):—late L. scaccārium orig. a chess-board, f. scacci, scāchi (pl.) chess, checkers. Cf. check, chess, exchequer.
(Although the spelling checker is historically better supported, and more in accordance with Eng. usage, chequer predominates in current use; of 20 quotations since 1750, 16 have chequer, 2 checquer, 2 checker.)]
I. A chess-board and connected senses.
† 1. a. A chess-board; a square board divided into 64 small squares, coloured alternately dark and light. Obs.
| c 1314 Guy Warw. (A.) 3195 Þe cheker þai oxy and þe meyne Bifor þe maiden þan pleyen he. c 1320 Sir Tristr. 309 A cheker he fond bi a cheire, He asked who wold play. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 11396 Somme..Drowe forthe meyne for þe cheker. c 1369 Chaucer Dethe Blaunche 660 Therewith Fortune said, checke here, And mate in the mid point of the checkere. c 1440 Gesta Rom. xxi. 71 The chekir or the chesse hath viij. poyntes in eche partie. 1474 Caxton Chesse iv. i, To speke of the forme and of the facion of the chequer. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 72 My trees stand foure square like the Chequer or Chesseboord. 1645 Bp. Hall Contentation 37 Neither should any of his men either stand or move, if in any other part of that Checker, it might bee in more hope to win. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xxix, To finger a man off their enemies' chequer. |
b. A square of the board. rare. Cf. 12.
| 1801 Strutt Sports & Past. iv. ii, The Polish Game requires a board with ten squares, or chequers, in each row. |
† 2. a. The game of chess. Obs.
At first only contextual in such phrases as at the chequer, orig. = ‘at the chess-board’.
| 1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 192 Wyþ pleyynge at tables, oþer atte chekere. c 1314 Guy Warw. (Caius) 3195 Than at Chequer with the meyne Before that maide pleyden they. c 1330 Florice & Bl. (1857) 351 He wil com the ner And bidde the plaien at the scheker. c 1400 Destr. Troy 1621 The chekker..The draghtes, the dyse, and oþer dregh gaumes. 1413 Lydg. Pylgr. Sowle i. xxii, He that at the cheker pleyeth. |
† b. A chess-man. rare. Obs.
| 1474 Caxton Chesse iv. viii, He..dyd do make the forme of chequers of gold and siluer in humayn figure. |
3. pl. The game of draughts. dial. and U.S. See checker.
| 1838 H. Martineau West. Trav. I. 280 Mr. Webster was playing chequers with his boy. 1886 W. H. Long Dial. Isle of Wight (E.D.S.) Checquers, the game of draughts. |
4. A chess-board as the sign of an inn; hence a generic proper name for a public-house.
| c 1400 Beryn Prol. 13 They toke hir In, and loggit hem..Atte ‘Cheker of the hope’. 1598 Stow Surv. (1633) 249 Now called Chequer-lane, or Chequer-Alley, of an Inne called the Chequer. 1659–60 Pepys Diary 24 Feb., As far as Foulmer..here we lay at the Chequer. 1797 Canning Knife-grinder, A-drinking at the Chequers. 1843 Neale Ballads for People 14 So they're down at the Chequers, and at it once more! |
II. The Exchequer.
Of the origin of this application of the word various more or less conjectural explanations have been offered: the earliest is that given in the Dialogus de Scaccario or Dialogue concerning the Exchequer, written in 1178 ‘by Richard Bishop of London the Treasurer, son of Bishop Nigel the Treasurer, and great-nephew of the justiciar Roger of Salisbury’ (Stubbs). According to this the scaccarium (chequer or eschequier) of the King was a quadrangular table, covered with a black cloth marked with transverse lines a foot or a palm apart, and having ‘calculi’ in the spaces; it was presumed to be so called from its likeness to a chequer or chess-board.
† 5. The table which gave its name to the King's Exchequer; any table for accounts, a counter. Obs.
| 1178 Dial. de Scaccario in Madox Exchequer App., Scaccarium tabula est quadrangula. Superponitur autem scaccario superiori pannus niger virgis distinctus, distantibus a se virgis vel pedis vel palmæ extentæ spacio. In spaciis autem calculi sunt..Disc. Quæ est ratio hujus nominis? Mag. Nulla mihi verior ad præsens occurrit, quam quod scaccarii lusilis similem habet formam. c 1237 ? Roger of Wendover Chron. Maj. an. 1231 Sedebant ad scaccarium regis, laicas causas ventilantes. 1389 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 83 Þai schulle bringe þe Catel & leyn vpon þe cheker bifor þe aldirman. 1742 R. Cornes in Phil. Trans. XLII. 128 A large Purse..tossed by the two Chamberlains, standing upon the Chequer [a large square Table in Guildhall at Bridgnorth]. |
† 6. The Court of exchequer. Obs.
| 1178 Dial. de Scaccario, Licet autem tabula talis Scaccarium dicatur, transmutatur tamen hoc nomen ut ipsa quoque Curia qua consedente scaccario est scaccarium dicatur. c 1260 Matt. Paris Hist. Angl. an. 1209 Amotum est scacarium a Westmonasterio usque ad Northamtonam. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 312 His tresorere..Fordos vsages olde, & lawes of þe chekere. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. i. 91 Somme seruen þe kynge and hus seluer tellen, In þe chekkere and þe chauncelrie chalengynge hus dettes. 1423 Sir T. Rokeby in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 31. I. 98 To comande the Tresorer and Barons of the Cheker of our Lord Kyng to here his Acompt. 1506–7 in Old City Acc. Bk. (Archæol. Jrnl. XLIII) Thomas Basset presentid them Into the Cheker for takyn of hyme a fynne of iijs. iiijd. a 1618 Raleigh in Gutch Coll. Cur. I. 58 The Red Book in the Checquer. 1691 Locke Toleration Wks. 1727 II. 34 Men who..allow high Use as an Encouragement to lending to the Chequer. |
† 7. transf. The royal or national treasury of court of account. Obs.
| 1425 Sc. Acts Jas. I (1597) §49 To make reckoning and giue compt thereof, at the Kingis Checker. 1473 Ld. Treas. Acc. Scotl. I. 48 Dauid Rudeman..passand with preceptis of the parliament and the chekkere on north halue Forth. 1473–4 Ibid. I. 6 b, His bill..particulary examinit at the Chakkere. 1535 Coverdale 1 Macc. x. 44 Expenses shal⁓be geuen out of the kynges Checker. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj. (Act. Robt. III) 57 The Schiref sovld compeir in the cheker. 1692 tr. Sallust 153 You tacitly murmur'd to see the public Chequer robb'd. |
† 8. A sitting of the Court of Exchequer or similar body. Obs.
| c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. viii. xxiv. 34 The nest Compt, that that Schyrrawe thare Suld gywe, quhan haldyn the chekkare ware. 1513–75 Diurn. Occurr. (1833) 11 The kingis grace past to Striueling, and thair held his chekker. 1621 Bk. Discipline 3 To conveen the time of the next chekker. |
† 9. transf. and fig. Treasury. Cf. ‘exchequer’.
| 1598 Drayton Heroic. Ep. xviii. 37 That Nature..made this place the Chequer of her store. a 1637 B. Jonson Underwoods 568 If the Checker be empty, so will be his Head. 1635 Quarles Embl. ii. xv. (1718) 121 Makes ev'ry purse his chequer; and at pleasure, Walks forth and taxes all the world like Cæsar. |
† 10. ? A room or place for accounts. Obs. exc. Hist.
| [1402–3 Bursar's Roll New Coll. Oxf. 3rd & 4th Hen. IV. (Heading, Custos Scaccarii et Librariæ), Item..pro tribus virgatis..de viridi Kersey emptis pro Scaccario et domo compoti.] 1577 Holinshed Chron. III. 856/2 The same daie, the king..landed at Calis..His grace was receiued into the checker, and there rested. 1593 Rites & Mon. Ch. Durham (1842) 81 He had alwaies one tonne of wyne lyinge in the said checker [at Durham], for the use of the sayd Church. c 1670 New Coll. Oxf., Plan of New Building in Garden Quad., Rooms are described as ‘Chequer, and Common Room over it’, ‘Audit House’ [now Bursary] ‘Treasury’, etc. 1887 J. Sheppard Literæ Cantuar. (Rolls) I. Introd. 21 The Serjeant of Walworth must have his accounts audited in the Cheker at Canterbury. 104 note, The Cheker or Audit room of the Monastery..is here meant. |
† 11. ? A checker-roll. Obs.
| 1467 Ord. Worcester in Eng. Gilds 406 It ys ordeyned..euery citezein of the old cheker pay at this tyme but vijd. and euery citezein of the newe cheker but xiijd. |
III. A chequered pattern.
12. pl. Squares or spots like, or suggesting, those of a chess-board.
| 1629 Parkinson Garden Pleas. Flowers vii. 43 Fritillaria. The flower is..spotted in very good order, with fine small checkers. c 1705 Berkeley in Fraser Life & Lett. (1871) 430 Blew and yellow chequers still diminishing terminate in green. 1846 Ruskin Mod. Paint. I. ii. vi. i. §18 The shadows of the upper boughs..resting in quiet chequers upon the glittering earth. 1872 Yeats Nat. Hist. Comm. 85 The Netherlands are cut into chequers by canals. |
13. Marking like that of a chess-board; alternation of colours; chequer-work, chequering.
| 1779 Forrest Voy. N. Guinea, A white ensign, bordered with a checker of blue, yellow, and red. 1818 Keats Endymion ii. 287 Hill-flowers running wild In pink and purple chequer. 1882 Athenæum No. 2860. 248 The ornaments are more Asiatic than Egyptian: rosettes, chequers, antefixal ornaments, gazelles. |
† 14. A fabric with a chequered pattern; chequered material; also attrib.; cf. checkery n. 2.
| 1542 Act 33 Hen. VIII in Stat. Irel. (1621) 185 Any hydes, fells, checkers. 1552 in E. Peacock Eng. Ch. Furniture (1866) 222 One alter clothe of white Cheker sylk. 1579 Middlesex County Rec. I. 240 Two hundred and twelve yards of woolen cloth called ‘Checkers’. |
15. Arch. in pl. ‘In masonry, stones in the facings of walls which have all their thin joints continued in straight lines, without interruption or breaking joints’ (Gwilt).
16. attrib. or Comb. † a. ‘belonging to the exchequer or royal treasury’, as chequer-compt, chequer-matter, chequer-pay, chequer-tally; b. ‘resembling a chess-board in appearance, of a chequered pattern’, as chequer-hedge; chequer-faced, chequer-windowed adjs.; † chequer-bill, a promissory bill issued by the exchequer, an exchequer-bill; † chequer-bird, a name of the Guinea-fowl from its marking; chequer-board (orig. U.S.) = checker-board (checker n.2 2 c); also attrib. and fig.; chequer-course (see quot.); † chequer-man, a man employed in the exchequer; a man who keeps accounts; † chequer-note = chequer-bill. Also chequer-chamber, -work, etc.
| 1697 Lond. Gaz. No. 3289/4 Lost..a *Chequer Bill of 20l. No. 17991. |
| 1745 P. Thomas Jrnl. Anson's Voy. 20 Abundance of Pintadoes, or *Chequer Birds. |
| 1732 Franklin Let. 24 July in Writings (1905) II. 189 Mr. Crownhim,..is always dreaming over the *Chequer-Board. 1859 E. Fitzgerald tr. Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám st. xlix, 'Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays. 1870 ‘Fanny Fern’ Ginger-Snaps 79 When some clerical big-gun is supposed to make a false move on the sacerdotal chequer-board. 1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 30 Apr. 338/3 Chequer-board fencing, so called from the pattern of interwoven slips of thin wood. |
| a 1605 Montgomerie Lesson how to die 52 Quhen he [the great Judge] thy *checker compt sall craive. |
| 1704 Worlidge Dict. Rust. et Urb. s.v. Brick-making, *Chequer-course is the lower row of bricks in the Arch. |
| 1659 Lond. Chanticleers xii. in Hazl. Dodsley XII. 351 The *checker-faced scullion. |
| 1677 Plot Oxfordsh. 238 Upon turning one of the cocks at f rises a *chequer hedge of water, as they call it. |
| c 1570 Thynne Pride & Lowl. (1841) 58 Your *cheker man for it doth keepe no chalke. 1641 Baker Chron. (R.), I have heard many checquer-men say, there never was a better treasurer. 1667 Pepys Diary 20 Feb., With the Chequer men to the ‘Leg’ in King Street; and there had wine for them. |
| 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1596) 249/2 Certeine bishops did sit on *chequer matters belonging to the King. |
| 1705 Vanbrugh Confed. iii. i, Not a penny of money in cash! nor a *chequer-note! nor a bank-bill! 1752 Hume Ess. & Treat. (1777) I. 336 To stuff the nation with this fine commodity of bank bills and chequer-notes. |
| 1628 Mead in Ellis Orig. Lett. i. 350 III. 283 In Queen Elizabeths days, when nothing on earth was surer than *Chequer pay. |
| a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) I. 254 And all the Points, like *Chequer⁓tallies suit. |
| 1865 E. Burritt Walk to Land's End 253 Low, *checker-windowed houses. |
▪ II. ˈchequer, n.2 dial.
[app. in allusion to the chequered or spotted appearance of the fruit (Britten & Holl.). The surmises that chequer may be a corruption of choker, and that ‘choker’ may once have been the name, are gratuitous.]
In pl. The fruit or berries of the Wild Service tree, Pyrus torminalis. In sing. also the tree: short for chequer-tree, chequer-wood.
| 1649 Culpepper Phys. Direct. 281 Services, Checkers called in Suffolk. 1664 Evelyn Sylva x, Sorbus, the Service tree..is rais'd of the Chequers or Berries, which being ripe (that is) rotten, about September, may be sown like Beech-Mast. 1875 Parish Sussex Dial., Chequer, the service tree. Pyrus torminalis. The fruit is called chequers. 1878 Britten & Holl. Plant-n., At Edenbridge, Kent, it is called ‘Chequer-wood’. 1883 Academy 7 Apr. 242 The bright bunches of red berries with which the Chequer-trees were laden. |
▪ III. chequer, checker, v.
(ˈtʃɛkə(r))
Forms: 5 chekyr, 6 cheker, 7–9 checquer, 5– checker, 7– chequer.
[Either formed in Eng. from chequer n. chess-board, chess-board pattern; or aphetic f. *escheker, a. OF. *escheker-er, cited by Godefroy only in pa. ppl. eschekeré, eschequeré, checkered, chequered, f. eschequier chess-board, checker; on L. type *scaccar(i)ātus, f. scaccārium. In English also, only the pa. pple. or ppl. a. chequered, is found in early use.
Of 100 quotations since 1755, 70 have chequer, 21 checker, 9 checquer.]
1. trans. To divide or mark like a chess-board, in squares of alternately different colours.
| 1486 etc. [see chequered ppl. a. 1.] 1633 G. Herbert Temple, Church floore, Mark you the floore? that square and speckled stone, And th' other black and grave, where⁓with each one Is checker'd all along. 1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters III. 228 The other..is checquered brown and black, in half-lozenges. 1833 H. Martineau Vanderput & S. ii. 24 The wall which enclosed the whole was chequered with blue and white bricks. |
2. To divide or partition into squares or sections by crossing lines (without reference to colour). Const. occas. out.
| 1601 Death Earl Huntington i. iii. in Hazl. Dodsl. VIII. 241, I scourg'd her for her pride, till her fair skin With stripes was checquer'd like a vintner's grate. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 7 The Gray, or Horse-Fly. Her eye is all latticed or chequered with dimples like Common Flyes. 1786 tr. Beckford's Vathek (1868) 101 The grotesque branches of the almond trees..fantastically chequered the clear blue sky. 1841 Catlin N. Amer. Ind. (1844) II. liii. 158, I have seen the rich Louisianian chequering out his cotton and sugar plantations. 1865 Gosse Land & Sea (1874) 117. |
3. To diversify with a different colour or shade; to variegate, mottle.
| ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 3268 A chayere of chalke-whytte siluer, And chekyrde with charebocle chawngynge of hewes. 1553 Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 16 Rhinoceros..of the coloure of boxe somwhat variable, and as it were chekered. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. ii. iii. 2 The gray ey'd morne..Checkring the Easterne Clouds with streakes of light. 1699 W. Dampier Voy. II. iii. 109 'Tis checker'd with Natural Groves and Savannahs. c 1720 Gay Araminta, She saw the morning ray Chequer the floor. 1846 Prescott Ferd. & Is. II. vii. 393 Moorish villages..chequering the green slopes. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xxxvi. (1856) 332 To see something..checkering the waste of white snow. |
b. absol.
| 1742 R. Blair Grave 57 By glimpse of moonshine chequering through the trees. |
† c. to checker in: to usher in by chequering. Obs. rare.
| 1590 Greene Never too late (1600) 50 The golden wyers that checkers in the day, Inferiour to the tresses of her haire. |
4. fig. To diversify or vary with elements of a different character; to interrupt the uniformity of.
| c 1632 Poem in Athenæum No. 2883. 121/2 The other Indians from the East repayre, All which with mingled Germans chequered are, And Flemings white. 1670 Eachard Cont. Clergy 28 He is not likely to deal afterward with much Latine; unless it be to checker a sermon. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 165 ¶4 The Letter was very modishly chequered with this modern Military Eloquence. 1718 Freethinker No. 30. 214 His Religious System is chequered with Contradictions. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge (1849) 85/2 His sleep was checkered with starts and moans. 1877 W. Thomson Voy. Challenger I. i. 5 Nine tolerable days fortunately checkered the uniformity of the heavy weather. |
b. Often used of the vicissitudes of life.
| 1639 Fuller Holy War ii. xvii. (1840) 72 This king's reign was chequered with variety of fortune. 1784 Cowper Task ii. 163 In all the good and ill, that checker life. 1830 J. G. Strutt Sylva Brit. 85 Its tranquil existence..chequered by no vicissitudes. 1876 Green Short Hist. iv. §5. (1882) 195 A progress..chequered with darker vicissitudes. |
5. To arrange or distribute chequer-wise; to intermix chequer-wise.
| 1677 Earl of Orrery Art War 191 This method of Checquering my Squadrons in the first Line of the Wing with small Battalions of Pike and Shot. 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth vi. (1723) 271 The Ocean intermixing with the Land so as to checquer it into Earth and Water. 1798 Earl St. Vincent in Nicolas Disp. Nelson (1845) III. 104 note, It will be best to chequer them in your Line of Battle two in your Starboard Division..and two in the Larboard. |
† 6. To put or place alternately. Obs. nonce-use (with word-play).
| 1662 Fuller Worthies (1840) III. 206 In the reign of King Henry the Third, when Chancellors were chequered in and out, three times he [de Merton] discharged that office. |
† 7. To deposit in an exchequer; to treasure up.
| a 1618 J. Davies Wittes Pilgr. (1876) 32 (D.) There..Nature chequers up all gifts of grace. a 1734 North Exam. iii. vii. ¶4 (1740) 506 For chequering the disbanding Money into the Chamber of London. |