checkered

UK: /ˈtʃɛkə^rd/ US: /ˈtʃɛkɚd/ ,(chek′ərd)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

check•ered /ˈtʃɛkɚd/  adj. 

1. showing changes in different directions:
   a checkered past.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

check•ered  (chek′ərd), adj. 

1. marked by numerous and various shifts or changes;
   variegated:
   a checkered career.
2. marked by dubious episodes;
   suspect in character or quality:
   a checkered past.
3. marked with squares:
   a checkered fabric.
4. diversified in color;
   alternately light and shadowed:
   the checkered shade beneath trees.

• Middle English. See checker¹, -ed² 1350–1400

Synonyms

• 1. . varied, uneven, irregular, seesaw.

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

check•er¹ /ˈtʃɛkɚ/   n. 

1. Chess, Games [countable] a small, usually red or black disk of plastic or wood used in playing checkers.
2. Chess, Games checkers, Also called, Brit., draughts. [uncountable; used with a singular verb] a game played by two persons, each with 12 playing pieces, on a checkerboard:
   Checkers is a good introduction to chess.

Also, Brit., chequer.
check•er² /ˈtʃɛkɚ/   n. [countable]

1. a person or thing that checks.
2. a cashier, as in a supermarket.
3. an employee of a checkroom.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

check•er¹  (chek′ər), n. 

1. Chess a small, usually red or black disk of plastic or wood, used in playing checkers.
2. Chess checkers:
   • Also called,[Brit.,] draughts. (used with a sing. v.) a game played by two persons, each with 12 playing pieces, on a checkerboard.
   • Metallurgy (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. See diag. under open-hearth. 
3. a checkered pattern.
4. one of the squares of a checkered pattern.

v.t. 

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,[Brit.,] chequer. 

• Anglo-French escheker (by aphesis), equivalent. to eschec check + -er -er²
• Middle English checker chessboard 1250–1300

check•er²  (chek′ər), n. 

1. a person or thing that checks.
2. a cashier, as in a supermarket or cafeteria.
3. a person who checks coats, baggage, etc.

• check¹ + -er¹ 1525–35

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

checker / ˈtʃɛkə/ noun , verb

1. the usual US spelling of chequer

noun

1. a variant spelling of chequer2
2. 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

checker / ˈtʃɛkə/ noun

1. a cashier, esp in a supermarket
2. an attendant in a cloakroom, left-luggage office, etc

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

chequered, checkered / ˈtʃɛkəd/ adjective

1. marked by fluctuations of fortune (esp in the phrase a chequered career)