Chess Definition

chĕs
chesses
noun
A game of skill played on a chessboard by two players, each with 16 chessmen limited in movement according to kind, the object being to checkmate the opponent's king.
Webster's New World
Any of several varieties of brome grass, esp. a weedy kind (Bromus secalinus) found in fields of grain.
Webster's New World
One of the floorboards of a pontoon bridge.
American Heritage

(now chiefly US) A type of grass, generally considered a weed.

Wiktionary

(military, chiefly in the plural) One of the platforms, consisting of two or more planks dowelled together, for the flooring of a temporary military bridge.

Wiktionary
Synonyms:
  • cheat
  • Bromus secalinus
  • chess game

Other Word Forms of Chess

Noun

Singular:
chess
Plural:
chesses

Origin of Chess

  • From Old French eschés, plural of eschec, from Vulgar Latin *scaccus, from Arabic شاه (šāh, “king in chess”), from Persian شاه (šāh, “shah, king”), from Middle Persian (šāh), from Old Persian (xšāyaθiya).

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English ches tier perhaps from Old French chasse frame from Latin capsa box

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Middle English ches short for Old French esches pl. of eschec check in chess check

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Origin uncertain; perhaps linked to Etymology 1, above, from the sense of being arranged in rows or lines.

    From Wiktionary

  • Compare French chassis (“a framework of carpentry”).

    From Wiktionary

  • Origin unknown

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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