Lexic.us

Definition of Checkmate

1. Noun. Complete victory.

2. Verb. Place an opponent's king under an attack from which it cannot escape and thus ending the game. "Sam cannot checkmate Sue "; "Kasparov checkmated his opponent after only a few moves"

3. Noun. A chess move constituting an inescapable and indefensible attack on the opponent's king.

Definition of Checkmate

1. n. The position in the game of chess when a king is in check and cannot be released, -- which ends the game.

2. v. t. To check (an adversary's king) in such a manner that escape in impossible; to defeat (an adversary) by putting his king in check from which there is no escape.

Definition of Checkmate

1. Interjection. (chess) Word called out by the victor when making the conclusive move. ¹

2. Noun. The conclusive victory in a game of chess that occurs when an opponent's king is threatened with unavoidable capture. ¹

3. Noun. (figuratively by extension) Any situation that has no obvious escape and involves some personal loss. ¹

4. Verb. (transitive chess) To put the king of an opponent into checkmate. ¹

5. Verb. (transitive by extension) To lead to a situation that has no obvious escape without some personal loss. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Checkmate

1. [v -MATED, -MATING, -MATES]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Checkmate

checking out checking over checking program checkings checkitis checklaton checkless checklist checklisted checklisting

checklists checkmark checkmarked checkmarking checkmarks checkmate (current term) checkmated checkmates checkmating checkoff

checkoffs checkout checkout chick checkout chicks checkout counter checkout divider checkout dividers checkout line checkout time checkouts

Literary usage of Checkmate

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Chess-player's Companion: Comprising a New Treatise on Odds, and a by Howard Staunton (1849)
"From this work we shall take the liberty of extracting Carrera's observations on— " The Odds of giving checkmate on a particular square. ..."

2. The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracián y Morales, Joseph Jacobs (1892)
"First guess a man's ruling passion, appeal to it by a word, set it in motion by temptation, and you will infallibly give checkmate to his freedom of will. ..."

3. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens (1908)
"checkmate TO THE FRIENDLY MOVE. MR. AND MKS. JOHN HARMON had so timed their taking possession of their rightful naine and their London house, that the event ..."

4. A Cycle of Adams Letters, 1861-1865 by Charles Francis Adams, Henry Adams (1920)
"... as he asserts, to force the country into a foreign war, and Mr. George Morey tells me that to checkmate this, Stunner intends on the opening of Congress ..."

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