different between check vs retard

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: ch?k, IPA^(key): /t???k/
• Rhymes: -?k
• Homophones: cheque, Czech

Etymology 1

From Middle English chek, chekke, borrowed from Old French eschek, eschec, eschac, from Medieval Latin scaccus, borrowed from Arabic ????? (š?h, “king or check at chess, shah”), borrowed from Persian ???? (šâh, “king”), from Middle Persian ????????????????? (mlk? /š?h/), from Old Persian ???? (XŠ /xš?ya?iya/, “king”), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *kšáyati (“he rules, he has power over”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tek- (“to gain power over, gain control over”).

All English senses developed from the chess sense. Compare Saterland Frisian Schak, Schach, Dutch schaak, German Schach, Danish skak, Swedish schack, Icelandic skák, French échec, Italian scacco. See chess and shah (“king of Persia or Iran”).

Noun

check (plural checks)

1. (chess) A situation in which the king is directly threatened by an opposing piece. [from 14th c.]
2. An inspection or examination.

3. A control; a limit or stop.
4. (US) A mark (especially a checkmark: ?) used as an indicator.

   Synonyms: (UK) tick, checkmark

   • 1980, Stephen King, The Mist

     Norton had made a neat, lawyerly check beside each of the items he and Billy had picked up—half a dozen or so, including the milk and a six-pack of Coke.

5. (US) An order to a bank to pay money to a named person or entity.

   Synonym: (UK, Canada) cheque

6. (US) A bill, particularly in a restaurant.

   Synonyms: bill, (Canada) cheque

7. (contact sports) A maneuver performed by a player to take another player out of the play.

8. A token used instead of cash in gaming machines, or in gambling generally.
   • 1963, American law reports annotated: second series, volume 89

     […] the statute prohibits a machine which dispenses checks or tokens for replay […]

9. A lengthwise separation through the growth rings in wood.
10. A mark, certificate, or token by which errors may be prevented, or a thing or person may be identified.

11. (falconry) The forsaking by a hawk of its proper game to follow other birds. [from 15th c.]
12. A small chink or crack.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

References

• check on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

From Middle English chekken, partly from Old French eschequier and partly from the noun (see above).

Verb

check (third-person singular simple present checks, present participle checking, simple past and past participle checked)

1. To inspect; to examine.

2. To verify the accuracy of a text or translation, usually making some corrections (proofread) or many (copyedit).
3. (US, often used with "off") To mark items on a list (with a checkmark or by crossing them out) that have been chosen for keeping or removal or that have been dealt with (for example, completed or verified as correct or satisfactory).

   Synonyms: check off, (UK) tick, (UK) tick off, cross off, strike off

   Antonym: uncheck

4. To control, limit, or halt.

   Synonyms: curtail, restrain; see also Thesaurus:curb

   • c. 1775–1780, Edmund Burke, letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol

     so many clogs to check and retard the headlong course of violence and oppression

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses Chapter 13

     She was about to retort but something checked the words on her tongue.

5. To verify or compare with a source of information.

6. To leave in safekeeping.

7. To leave with a shipping agent for shipping.

8. (street basketball) To pass or bounce the ball to an opponent from behind the three-point line and have the opponent pass or bounce it back to start play.

9. (sports) To disrupt another player with the stick or body to obtain possession of the ball or puck.

   Synonyms: tackle, trap, attack

10. (poker) To remain in a hand without betting. Only legal if no one has yet bet.

11. (chess) To make a move which puts an adversary's king in check; to put in check.
12. To chide, rebuke, or reprove.
13. (nautical) To slack or ease off, as a brace which is too stiffly extended.
14. To crack or gape open, as wood in drying; or to crack in small checks, as varnish, paint, etc.
15. To make checks or chinks in; to cause to crack.

16. To make a stop; to pause; with at.

    • The mind, once jaded by an attempt above its power, either is disabled for the future, or else checks at any vigorous undertaking ever after.

17. (obsolete) To clash or interfere.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)

18. To act as a curb or restraint.
    • 1677, John Dryden, All for Love

      It [his presence] checks too strong upon me.

19. (falconry) To turn, when in pursuit of proper game, and fly after other birds.

Derived terms

• See below

Descendants

• ? Gulf Arabic: ???? (??yy?k)
• ? Hijazi Arabic: ??????? (šayyak)
• ? Finnish: tsekata
• ? German: checken
• ? Portuguese: checar
• ? Russian: ??????? (?ékat?)
• ? Russian: ???????? (?éknut?)
• ? Russian: ?????????? (pro?ékat?)
• ? Spanish: chequear

Translations

Derived terms

Related terms

Etymology 3

By shortening from chequer, from Old French eschequier (“chessboard”), from Medieval Latin scaccarium, ultimately from the same Persian root as above.

Noun

check (plural checks)

1. (textiles, usually pluralized) A pattern made up of a grid of squares of alternating colors; a checkered pattern.
   • 1819, Charles Mowry, in the Downington Pennsylvania American Republican, quoted in Herbery Wisbey, Pioneer Prophetess: Jemima Wilkinson, the Publick Universal Friend:

     One of her female followers, had made a very elegant piece of check. The Friend, being at her house, on a visit, the lady shewed the check to her, and as evidence of devotion to her leader, proposed presenting her with a pattern off the piece for her own use.

2. Any fabric woven with such a pattern.

Translations

Verb

check (third-person singular simple present checks, present participle checking, simple past and past participle checked)

1. (transitive) To mark with a check pattern.

Adjective

check (not comparable)

1. (heraldry) Divided into small squares by transverse, perpendicular, and horizontal lines.

   Synonym: chequy

References

• Michael Quinion (2004) , “Cheque”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, ?ISBN
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “check”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Chinese

Etymology

Borrowed from English check.

Pronunciation

Verb

check

1. (Cantonese) to check

Synonyms

• ????? (ji?nchá)

Danish

Etymology

From English cheque, check, from Old French eschek (“check (in chess)”), via Medieval Latin scaccus and Arabic ????? (š?h) from Persian ???? (šâh, “king”) (cf. also Danish skak).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?????]

Noun

check c

1. cheque

Inflection

Dutch

Pronunciation

Verb

check

1. first-person singular present indicative of checken
2. imperative of checken

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t??k/

Noun

check m (plural checks)

1. (slang) fist bump

Spanish

Noun

check m (plural checks)

1. check (mark)

Swedish

Etymology

From English check

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??k?/
• Homophones: käck, tjeck

Noun

check c

1. cheque, check

Declension

References

English

Etymology

From Middle English retarden, from Anglo-Norman or Latin, from Anglo-Norman retarder, from Latin retard?re (“to retard”), from re- + tardus (“slow”).

Pronunciation

Noun (delay sense), verb

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /???t??(?)d/
• Rhymes: -??(?)d

Noun (offensive slang sense)

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /??i?t??(?)d/

Noun

retard (plural retards)

1. Retardation; delay.

   Synonyms: delay, hold-up, retardation

2. (music) A slowing down of the tempo; a ritardando.
3. (offensive, dated) A person with mental retardation.

   Synonyms: retarded, (offensive) tard, (disused medical term) imbecile, (legal term) mental deficient, (disused medical term) moron

4. (informal, offensive) A person or being who is extremely stupid or slow to learn.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:fool

   • 2007, Doug Green, No Wife No Kids No Plan (?ISBN):

     “That's 'cause your dog is a retard,” the large woman retorted. The pit bull must have sensed the insult because it got up on all fours and started barking at the woman. Not one to back down from an interspecies fight, the prison lady stood up […]

Usage notes

Through the euphemism treadmill, the term retard (which originated as a neutral substitute for the terms that had previously designated those with disabilities, namely idiot, imbecile, and moron) has come to be considered offensive; see Wikipedia for more. In a 2003 survey by the BBC, retard was voted the most offensive word relating to disability, followed by spastic.

Derived terms

• -tard

Translations

Verb

retard (third-person singular simple present retards, present participle retarding, simple past and past participle retarded)

1. (transitive) To keep delaying; to continue to hinder; to prevent from progress

   Synonyms: impede, hinder, hold up

2. (transitive) To put off; to postpone.

3. (transitive, obsolete) To be slow or dilatory to perform (something).
4. (intransitive) To decelerate; to slow down.
5. (intransitive, obsolete) To stay back.

Synonyms

• (keep delaying; continue to hinder): decelerate, hinder, slow, slow down; See also Thesaurus:hinder
• (postpone): postpone, put off; See also Thesaurus:procrastinate
• (slow to perform): reluctant
• (decelerate): decelerate, slow, slow down, slow up
• (stay back): hang back, stay back; See also Thesaurus:tarry

Antonyms

• (keep delaying; continue to hinder): accelerate, speed, speed up
• (postpone):
• (stay back): come forward

Derived terms

• retarded

Translations

References

• IQ Basics, including formerly used medical terms for people with very low IQs

Anagrams

• Darter, R-rated, Trader, darter, dartre, retrad, tarred, trader

Catalan

Etymology

From retardar.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /r??ta?t/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /r??tart/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /re?ta?t/

Noun

retard m (plural retards)

1. delay

   Synonyms: demora, endarreriment

Further reading

• “retard” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
• “retard” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “retard” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.

French

Etymology

From the verb retarder.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.ta?/

Noun

retard m (plural retards)

1. delay

Derived terms

• avoir un train de retard
• en retard
• prendre du retard

Further reading

• “retard” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• tarder, trader

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From French retard (“delay”), from the verb retarder (“to retard, slow down”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /r??t??r/
• Rhymes: -??r
• Hyphenation: ret?ard
• Homophones: R, r

Noun

retard m (definite singular retarden, indefinite plural retarder, definite plural retardene)

1. (horology) side in a clockwork to which the adjustment indicator must be set to make the clock go slower

   Synonyms: R, r

Antonyms

• avance

References

• “retard” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Anagrams

• darret, radert, trader