Forms: 5 chekyr, 6 cheker, 7–9 checquer, 5– checker, 7– chequer. [Either formed in Eng. from CHEQUER sb. chess-board, chess-board pattern; or aphetic f. *escheker, a. OF. *escheker-er, cited by Godefroy only in pa. pple. 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 colors.
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, wherewith 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. Ht. 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 color). 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. 6–7. The Gray, or Horse-Fly. Her eye … is all latticed or chequered with dimples like Common Flyes.
1786. trans. 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, 117. A wide amphitheatre of country, chequered with fields of all shapes, of all shades of green.
3. To diversify with a different color 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.), 26. Rhinoceros … of the coloure of boxe somwhat variable, and as it were chekered.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. iii. 2. The gray ey’d morne … Checkring the Easterne Clouds with streakes of light.
1699. 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. (1854), 332. To see something, no matter what, checkering the waste of white snow, was like a shady grove to men sun-tired in a prairie.
b. absol.
1742. R. Blair, Grave, 6.
| Oft, in the lone Church-yard at Night I’ve seen | |
| By Glimpse of Moon-shine, chequering thro’ the Trees, | |
| The School-boy with his Satchel in his Hand, | |
| Whistling aloud to bear his Courage up. |
† 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 Latin; 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 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), 270–1. 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.
