checker1

[chek-er] /ˈtʃɛk ər/
noun
1.
a small, usually red or black disk of plastic or wood, used in playing checkers.
2.
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.
3.
a checkered pattern.
4.
one of the squares of a checkered pattern.
verb (used with object)
5.
to mark like a checkerboard.
6.
to diversify in color; variegate.
7.
to diversify in character; subject to alternations:
Sorrow and joy have checkered his life.
Also, British, chequer.
Origin
1250-1300; Middle English checker chessboard < Anglo-French escheker (by aphesis), equivalent to eschec check + -er -er2

checker2

[chek-er] /ˈtʃɛk ər/
noun
1.
a person or thing that checks.
2.
a cashier, as in a supermarket or cafeteria.
3.
a person who checks coats, baggage, etc.
Origin
1525-35; check1 + -er1
Examples from the web for checker
  • Thank goodness for the ticket checker, as he was able to open the door and direct me to the correct train track.
  • In the case of the spell-checker, it is pretty obvious.
  • Not only have you outsmarted me, but you've outsmarted my dictionary and my spell-checker too.
  • Well, it seems the fact checker was on a coffee break when this got written.
  • Fiction is one giant pseudo-statement, a fact-checker's nightmare.
  • Too bad for him that they hired a fact checker that called.
  • With one click, you can make the grammar checker stop forever-unless you invite it back in later, of course.
  • It is to be hoped that the publisher of the promised book on tenure will employ a rigorous fact-checker.
  • Our facilitators have a tremendous plagiarism checker that is used to check for that exact problem.
  • Yellow is used for trivial changes, fo the sort that students seem to do to foil plagiarism-checker software.
British Dictionary definitions for checker

checker1

/ˈtʃɛkə/
noun, verb
1.
the usual US spelling of chequer
noun
2.
(textiles) a variant spelling of chequer (sense 2)
3.
(US & Canadian) any one of the 12 flat thick discs used by each player in the game of checkers Also called (in Britain and certain other countries) draughtsman

checker2

/ˈtʃɛkə/
noun (mainly US & Canadian)
1.
a cashier, esp in a supermarket
2.
an attendant in a cloakroom, left-luggage office, etc

chequer

/ˈtʃɛkə/
noun
1.
any of the marbles, pegs, or other pieces used in the game of Chinese chequers
2.
  1. a pattern consisting of squares of different colours, textures, or materials
  2. one of the squares in such a pattern
verb (transitive)
3.
to make irregular in colour or character; variegate
4.
to mark off with alternating squares of colour
See also chequers
Word Origin
C13: chessboard, from Anglo-French escheker, from escheccheck
Word Origin and History for checker
n.

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)).

"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.).

v.

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