1926 Electr. World 7 Aug. 280The meter installers soon become very careful about reading meters, and thereby become a *check-back on any one who reads the meter later.
1931 G. O. Russell Speech & Voice 6This has made possible a check-back on acoustic control.
1954 Koestler Invis. Writing xxviii. 306Checkbacks had shown that the information was correct.
1892 J. Nasmith Students' Cotton Spinning 276Two principal faults arising from an imperfect adjustment of the *check band.
a1877 Knight Dict. Mech. ,*Check-bar, a bar which limits the backward play of the jacks . [ in a piano-movement]
1888 Daily News 26 July 5/5, 100 heavy *check-blocks were knocked away and the 20,000 tons of logs slid gracefully into the water.
1872 ( title)The *Cheque Book of the Chapel Royal (Camden Soc. ).
1794 Felton Carriages (1801) I. 211The *check-braces are..single straps of leather, placed at the 4 angles of the body of Chaises or phaetons, to check the motion endways.
1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 8The latter has generally a *check-chain, by which the wheel is pulled up, in order to be out of the way.
a1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl. ,Check Chain, a chain connecting the car body with its truck.
1896 Strand Mag. XII. 325/1The sliding ways, cradle, and ship..glide down the appointed pathway..until retarded..and finally brought to rest by check-chains..connecting ship and shore.
1875 ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports i. i. iii. 68It is a tiresome task, and requires some degree of cruelty by means of the *check-collar and whip.
1908 Daily Report 7 Feb. 1/4 When the competitors..combine to fleece their customers, the *check-cord on their power to run up prices is sometimes more difficult to apply.
1936 Experiment Station Rec. Jan. 112Brush *check dams seem most effective in regions where sandy soils predominate.
1943 J. S. Huxley TV A vi. 30The building of check-dams..for anti-erosion purposes.
1953 Brit. Commonw. ForestTerminol. i. 25Check dam, a dam built in a watercourse to prevent or reduce erosion.
1872 Huxley Phys. vii. 173These..helping to stop excessive rotation of the skull are called *check ligaments.
1850 Chubb Locks & Keys 18A *check-lock, with a small key, which throws a hard steel plate over the large key-hole.
1903 Westm. Gaz. 1 Oct. 10/3The ‘check-locking’ arrangement..ensures that until the movement of a point or signal has been fully completed the lever in the signal-box..is checked... As soon as the signal or point movement..is properly completed, the ‘check-lock’ is electrically removed.
1737–8 Manch. SchoolReg. (1866) I. 9Edward Coppock of Manchester, *checkman.
1866 Cornh. Mag. Mar. 356The old checkman came with his lantern to tick off the fares.
1909 *Check meter . [ see calibrate v.]
1964 Economist 28 Mar. 1280/1 ‘Check meters’ are used by landlords who have one mains gas or electricity connection, and only one meter.
1911 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C. ) 27 Apr. 1/4The management..has refused the local union a continuance of the ‘*check-off’, which has been in force heretofore.
1922 Tom Mooney's Monthly (S.F.) Nov. 4/4 The miners were on strike against a cut in wages abolition of the ‘check-off’ system. [ and]
1923 J. D. Hackett Labor Terms in Management Engineering May,Check-Off System, a system whereby initiation fees, fines, and dues of union employees are deducted from their wages by the employer and periodically remitted to the district union organization.
1965 Times 21 May 15/2 The deduction of union dues from pay by employers—the ‘check⁓off’ as the Americans term it.
1944 Plane Talk Sept. 24 Advancement to radio operator ‘A’ may be earned by..training that must include *checkout on several types of multi-engine airplanes.
1956 W. A. Heflin U.S. A.F.Dict. 111/2Checkout, instruction or training given a pilot to familiarize him with a given aircraft.
1958 Punch 6 Aug. 172/2 Hotel check-out times in America are quite late in the day.
1962 E. Godfrey Retail Selling & Organ. xxi. 204Few people nowadays are unfamiliar with the principle of collecting a basket, selecting the goods required from shelves and taking them to the check-out point.
1964 Times Rev. Industry Mar. 98/2The latter has no less than 60 check-outs. [ store]
1922 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. 20 Sept. 152A further lot of sheep placed in the *check-pen. [ can be]
1950 Ibid. July 7/3In larger sets of yards one or more of these drafting pens communicate, via a gate, with the check pen(s)... Their purpose is to hold the sheep while they are being checked over for mistakes in drafting and for treatment.
1833 Reg. Instr. Covalry i. 71The..strap from *check-piece to check-piece, under the jaw-bone, is to keep the cavesson back from his eyes.
1940 H. E. Baughman AviationDict. 48/1*Check point. (1) A check point is a geographical location on the surface of the land or water, above which the position of an aircraft in flight can be accurately determined by means of visual reference... (2) Radio Range Station when instrument flight is necessary.
1940 Crump & Maul Our Airliners 101Allentown, the next check point, is twenty-four minutes away.
1950 C. MacInnes To Victors the Spoils i. 48We were stopped by a Redcap at a check-point.
1959 Oxf. Mag. 26 Feb. 274/2It is observed that x vehicles pass the various check-points on their way into the city.
1959 Times 15 Apr. 13/2 The Russian stopping of four American lorries at the road check-point at Helmstedt.
1965 Listener 9 Dec. 941/1, I showed our passports at Checkpoint Charlie.
1949 F. Maclean Eastern Approaches ii. iii. 203Anxiously we asked what we might expect in the way of *check posts or road blocks.
1876 J. W. Barry Railway Appliances ii. 58The extra rail, which is called a *check rail, relieves the sideways pressure of the wheels.
1906 Westm. Gaz. 3 July 5/1The check-rail..—a rail laid..to minimise the danger of the curve.
1962 D. A. Boreham Narrow Gauge Railway Modelling ii. 20For this reason the very greatest care should be taken with check-rails.
a1809 T. Holcroft Mem. (1816) I. xiv. 123He had shewn himself restive, and..was ridden in a *check-rein.
1873 Holland A. Bonnic. i. 14The check-rein of his leading horse.
1900 G. Ade More Fables 154He had gone past, on his way to the checkroom.
1801 Felton CarriagesGloss. ,*Check-ring.
1969 New Yorker 11 Oct. 43/2 In the new *checkrooms, there's going to be a marvellous new form of coat-checking.
1918 Farrow Dict. Mil. Terms,*Check ropes, strong ropes employed to diminish recoil by increasing the frictional resistances.
1861 Trans. Ill.Agric. Soc. IV. 248He must have a boy to tend the *check-set of the corn-planter.
1886 E. W. Howe Moonlight Boy 102My friend left his own baggage at a *check stand.
1904 F. Lynde Grafters ii. 31The train was in, and the porter had fetched Loring's handbag from the check-stand.
1961 Progressive Grocer Dec. 54 View over checkstands shows..small..area with plywood walls..showing non-foods on special.
1857 G. A. Lawrence Guy Livingst. (Hoppe)Look at the helmet, with the clean even gap in it, cloven down to the *check-strap.
1887 Scribner's Mag. Oct. 508/1‘I'll put a check-strap on him, if he won't do it!’ a little chap exclaimed..using a phrase drawn from the training of horses.
1962 Which? Suppl. July 107/2The door check straps were disintegrating.
1589 R. Harvey Pl. Perc. (1590) 7Curbd with a *checkthong, as bigge as a towpenny halter.
1825 Hone Every-dayBk. I. 693The *check ticket was a card.
a1877 Knight Dict. Mech. ,*Check-valve.
1930 Engineering 14 Nov. 627/2 Connected in the feed range immediately before the boiler check valves.
1963 Gloss. Mining Terms (B.S.I.) iv. 9Reflux valve (check valve, deprecated; retaining valve, deprecated), an automatic non-return valve which opens freely to permit fluid to pass in one direction but closes under its own weight when motion ceases or when the fluid commences to flow in a reverse direction.
1375 Barbour Bruce x. 613Apon the wall, The *chak-wachis assemblit all.
1828–41 Tytler Hist. Scot. (1864) I. 112The check-watches..were making their round and challenging the sentinels.
1885 Weekly Notes 64/2 A *check-weigher in a mine.
1887 Times 23 June 9 The rights and duties of the curious, almost unique functionary—the check-weigher, appointed by the men to supervise the employer.
1888 Daily News 16 July 2/4 Matters relating to *check-weighmen and the question of rents and wayleaves for getting and carrying coal.
1822 Hazlitt Table-t. I. iv. 79Common sense thus acts as a *check-weight on sophistry.
1872 Baker Nile Tribut. ix. 151The reel overran itself, having no *check-wheel.
1940 W. J. Eckert Punched Card Methods iii. 27*Check sums detect misplaced cards and errors of transposition.
1979 Personal Computer World Nov. 45/1 Rundle says that he was virtually forced to design a checksum cassette handling system because there was no other way of loading an 8K byte program.
1986 ZX Computing Monthly Oct. 52/3 The scope for errors when typing in the long lists of numbers is considerable, even with checksums.
ORIGIN: from check noun 1 or verb 1.