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Checkmate   /tʃˈɛkmˌeɪt/   Listen
Checkmate

verb
(past & past part. checkmated; pres. part. checkmating)
1.
Place an opponent's king under an attack from which it cannot escape and thus ending the game.  Synonym: mate.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Checkmate" Quotes from Famous Books



... General Feng Yuo-chang was able to telegraph Peking that it was impossible for him to leave his post at Nanking without rebellion breaking out. This veiled threat was understood by Yuan Shih-kai. Grimly he accepted the checkmate. ...
— The Fight For The Republic In China • B.L. Putnam Weale

... &c.; and, in your Re-examination, p. 14, "He should have said, I advised the Parliament to lay no burden of government upon them whom he (this Commissioner) thinks church officers, then had he spoken true." Now let the reverend brother take heed to checkmate, and that three several ways (but let him not grow angry, as bad players use to do). For, 1. Eo ipso that he denies the institution, by his principles he denies the prudence; for he that denieth the institution, and adviseth ...
— The Works of Mr. George Gillespie (Vol. 1 of 2) • George Gillespie

... Flick returned, and during that time Pearl saw Hanson almost constantly, although to do so she had continually to match her quickness and subtlety against that of her father and Hughie; but even while she and her father met each other with move and counter-move, check and checkmate, it was characteristic of both of them that Hanson's obvious infatuation and her equally obvious return of it were never ...
— The Black Pearl • Mrs. Wilson Woodrow

... Dr. Upround said, as soon as he had well considered this epistle, "I have put up with many a checkmate at your hands, but not without the fair delight of a counter-stroke at the enemy. Here you afford me none of that. You are my master in every way; and quietly you make me make your moves, quite as if I were the black in a problem. You leave me to conduct your fellow-smugglers' ...
— Mary Anerley • R. D. Blackmore

... power meant and how it was wielded everywhere on earth as well as in Remsen City—the man was no mere dreamer and theorist. He had seen the point no less clearly than had Victor Dorn. But what concerned her, what set her to fluttering, was that he was about to checkmate Victor Dorn. What should she say and do ...
— The Conflict • David Graham Phillips

... Rome boose for the Bloom toff. I hear you say onions? Bloo? Cadges ads. Photo's papli, by all that's gorgeous. Play low, pardner. Slide. Bonsoir la compagnie. And snares of the poxfiend. Where's the buck and Namby Amby? Skunked? Leg bail. Aweel, ye maun e'en gang yer gates. Checkmate. King to tower. Kind Kristyann wil yu help yung man hoose frend tuk bungellow kee tu find plais whear tu lay crown of his hed 2 night. Crickey, I'm about sprung. Tarnally dog gone my shins if this beent the bestest puttiest longbreak yet. Item, curate, couple of cookies ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce

... had been schooled in the East. Moreover, she was in the oil business. This last bit of intelligence naturally intrigued the man, and he undertook to gain further illumination, but only to have the girl pretend that he knew all about it. He accepted this checkmate with the best possible grace, but revenged himself by assuming the airs and privileges of a friend more intimate even than Miss Good had implied, a pretense that confused and even annoyed her. For some reason this counterfeit pleased him; it was extremely agreeable even to pretend ...
— Flowing Gold • Rex Beach

... newspaper influence, would have satisfied the public mind by printing constant reiterations of the completeness and excellence of the supplies, and the entire contentment and jubilation of the men! But I awoke to my responsibilities in time to checkmate this move. I forbade the provocation intended;—I stopped the war. In this matter at least—much loss of life, much heavy expenditure, and much ill-will among other nations has been happily spared to us. For the rest,—everything you have been ...
— Temporal Power • Marie Corelli

... servant was armed with a stout cudgel, and half-a-dozen sturdy peasants of the neighbourhood were enlisted to come, willingly enough, to help to watch and checkmate the rough party from the town, against whom a bitter feeling of enmity existed for depriving the cottagers from getting ...
— Nic Revel - A White Slave's Adventures in Alligator Land • George Manville Fenn

... of cities" seems to have resembled our chess or draughts. The board was divided into five parts. Each player tried to checkmate the other by the skillful use of his men. Games of hazard with dice and astragaloi were most likely greater favorites with the topers than the intellectual ones hitherto described. The number of dice was at first three, afterwards two; the figures on the ...
— Museum of Antiquity - A Description of Ancient Life • L. W. Yaggy

... charted on the map of political unity by an insect in Washington in the spring of 1903; and they seemed to him fixed. Russia held Europe and America in her grasp, and Cassini held Hay in his. The Siberian Railway offered checkmate to all possible opposition. Japan must make the best terms she could; England must go on receding; America and Germany would look on at the avalanche. The wall of Russian inertia that barred Europe across the Baltic, would ...
— The Education of Henry Adams • Henry Adams

... distance," which pleased him greatly, as it showed how accurate his description was. He was a chess-player, and, when travelling alone, he used to carry a book with diagrams of partially-played games, in which it is required to give checkmate in a fixed number of moves. He would study one of them, and then, shutting the book, play out the ...
— Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville • Mary Somerville

... swift mind Stafford saw his advantage—the one chance, the one card he could play, the one move he could make in checkmate, if, and when, necessary. "So you saw all that came and went. And ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... hit, good stroke; direct hit, bull's eye; goal, point, touchdown; home run, homer, hole-in-one, grand slam; killing [make money], windfall bold stroke, master stroke; ten strike [U.S.]; coup de maitre [Fr.], checkmate; half the battle, prize; profit &c (acquisition) 775. continued success; good fortune &c (prosperity) 734; time well spent. advantage over; upper hand, whip hand; ascendancy, mastery; expugnation^, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... squadron off Meriden. They would yearn passionately to have their ships equipped with apparatus by which it could vanish from a place where it was a target to reappear elsewhere, unharmed, and make the enemy its target. Two fleets equipped with the new device might checkmate each other. ...
— Talents, Incorporated • William Fitzgerald Jenkins



Words linked to "Checkmate" :   chess, crush, trounce, chess move, victory, beat, triumph, beat out, chess game, vanquish, shell



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