Check. In textile fabrics a pattern of squares of alternate colors. Properly, a check should have no divisions between the squares more than a thin boundary line; that is, it should resemble the ordinary chess-board. [See Plaid] The word check is derived from a custom practiced by the courts of Europe of settling accounts and computing money by means of counters or tallies on a table covered with a square checkered cloth; the word having been originally derived from French echequier - a chess-board.