chequerboardcheckerboardn.
/ˈtʃɛkəbɔːd/, U.S. /ˈtʃɛkərˌbɔrd/ 1. A board for playing draughts (checkers), chess, and similar games, having a regular pattern of 64 squares in alternating colours, typically black and white; a chessboard or draughtboard. Also figurative.
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > board game > chess > [noun] > chessboard
exchequera1300
chess1303
chequerc1330
quek1376
tablerc1380
chessboard1474
tablier1474
chequerboard1597
chess-table1862
society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > board game > draughts > [noun] > board
chequerboard1597
draught-board1726
dam-brod1826
1597 G. B. Damiano da Odemira's Ludus Scacchiæ: Chesse-play sig. a Beholde here the forme of the Checker or Chesse-boorde.
1646 T. Blount tr. H. Estienne Art making Devises viii. 20 Let us observe..that the ancient Knights and Paladins of France..had each one a particular Badg... Renaldus of Montauban bore a Lyon barred..Salomon of Betaign a Chequer board [etc.].
1732 B. Franklin Pennsylvania Gaz. 17–24 July 2/1 Mr. Crownhim..is always dreaming over the Checquer-board.
1779 T. Forrest Voy. New Guinea 245 They played much at a kind of checker board with glass beads flat on one side.
1815 B. F. Palmer Diary 8 Jan. (1914) 135 We turn away & take a book or the chequer board.
1845 ‘F. Forester’ Protege of Grand Duke iii. 27 Now was poor Carlton cornered on the chequer board of life, and he must play boldly the game if he would reach the desired goal.
1919 Fort Sheridan (Illinois) Recall 16 Apr. 3/2 There are card tables and checkerboards aplenty; there are soft, roomy chairs and deckchairs with extensions.
1995 H. Roth Conversat. Country Store 59 We would check plant: plant it like a checkerboard so you could cultivate either way.
2. A checked pattern resembling a chequerboard (sense 1); something having this appearance. Occasionally also: an alternating succession of contrasting events.
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the world > matter > colour > variegation > chequered pattern > [noun]
checkingc1440
checkc1450
chequer-work1519
chequer1779
chequerboard1835
checkery1837
quadrille1884
windowpane check1898
Prince of Wales check1935
1835 New Monthly Mag. May 63 I was carried away through the air..looking down upon the country below, a great chequer-board of woods and pastures, and fields and towns.
1859 E. FitzGerald tr. Rubáiyát Omar Khayyám xlix. 11 'Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays.
1900 G. Santayana Poetry & Relig. 261 As the parallels and meridians make a checker-board of the sea.
1948 Proc. Symp. Large-scale Digital Calculating Machinery 1947 133 Electrons from an extended source are intercepted by two orthogonal sets of spaced parallel metallic bars which create a checkerboard of windows.
2003 Inquirer Mag. 2 Feb. 21/2 The ‘checkerboard’ of raw scallop and sashimi was..oversalted.
Compounds
General use as modifier; chiefly with reference to the checked pattern of a chequerboard.
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1843 Ladies' Compan. Apr. 291/1 He was regarded by the senior moralists of the chequer-board city of Philadelphia, as an exemplary specimen of juvenility.
1890 J. M. Bradley Mod. Manners & Social Forms 384 Another bad habit..is that of turning a sheet half around and writing a second time across the page—making a kind of checker-board letter of it.
1943 T. W. Lawson Thirty Seconds over Tokyo vii. 104 The coolies walked silently across fields, up and down hills and along narrow dykes enclosing checkerboard paddies.
1989 New Scientist 8 Apr. 56/4 Manhattan's checkerboard street plan..certainly makes it easy for any visitor to know how to get to any destination in the city.
2002 P. Long Guide to Rural Wales vi. 195/1 Among the many delightful features there is a tunnel arbour planted with white roses..and vines, an enclosed arbour and a chequerboard garden.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2021; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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