different between check vs tally

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 1

Clipping of tallyho.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?tæli/
• Hyphenation: tal?ly
• Rhymes: -æli

Interjection

tally

1. (radio, aviation) Target sighted.

   (Air Traffic Control): Speedbird 123, New York, traffic at two o’clock, seven miles, a Boeing 737, west-bound, at 4000 feet.

   (Pilot): New York, Speedbird 123, tally.

Usage notes

In aviation radio usage, more common than original tallyho. In civilian aviation usage, the official term for “traffic sighted” is “traffic in sight”.

Synonyms

• (target sighted): tallyho

Etymology 2

From Middle English talie, from Anglo-Norman tallie and Old French taille (“notch in a piece of wood signifying a debt”), from Medieval Latin tallia, from Latin talea (“a cutting, rod, stick”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?tæli/
• Hyphenation: tal?ly
• Rhymes: -æli

Noun

tally (plural tallies)

1. Abbreviation of tally stick.
2. (by extension) One of two books, sheets of paper, etc., on which corresponding accounts were kept.
3. (by extension) Any account or score kept by notches or marks, whether on wood or paper, or in a book, especially one kept in duplicate.
4. One thing made to suit another; a match; a mate.
   • c. 1690, John Dryden, Don Sebastian, Act V, scene 1:

     So paired, so suited in their minds and persons,

     That they were framed the tallies for each other.

5. A notch, mark, or score made on or in a tally; as, to make or earn a score or tally in a game.
6. A tally shop.
7. A ribbon on a sailor's cap bearing the name of the ship or the (part of) the navy to which they belong.
8. (informal, regional, dated) A state of cohabitation, living with another individual in an intimate relationship outside of marriage.

Translations

See also

• Five-bar gate tally

Etymology 3

From Middle English talien, from the noun (see above). Also from Medieval Latin taliare

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?tæli/
• Hyphenation: tal?ly
• Rhymes: -æli

Verb

tally (third-person singular simple present tallies, present participle tallying, simple past and past participle tallied)

1. (transitive) To count something.
2. (transitive) To record something by making marks.
3. (transitive) To make things correspond or agree with each other.
4. (intransitive) To keep score.
5. (intransitive) To correspond or agree.
6. (nautical) To check off, as parcels of freight going inboard or outboard.

Synonyms

• (count something): enumerate, number; see also Thesaurus:count

Derived terms

• tally up

Translations

Etymology 4

From Middle English tally, talliche, equivalent to tall +? -ly.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t?li/, /?t?l.li/
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /?t?li/, /?t?l.li/
• Hyphenation: tally

Adverb

tally (comparative more tally, superlative most tally)

1. (obsolete) In a tall way; stoutly; with spirit.
   • c. 1612, Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, The Captain, Act II, scene ii:

     And you, Lodovick, / That stand so tally on your reputation, / You shall be he shall speak it.

Further reading

• tally in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• tally at OneLook Dictionary Search

References

Middle English

Alternative forms

• talliche, tawly

Etymology

tal (“adj”) +? -ly

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?tali?/

Adverb

tally

1. properly, suitably, becomingly

Descendants

• English: tally (obsolete)
• Yola: taullee

References

• “tall?, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.