CHESS

chess, chess game

(noun) a board game for two players who move their 16 pieces according to specific rules; the object is to checkmate the opponent’s king

chess, cheat, Bromus secalinus

(noun) weedy annual native to Europe but widely distributed as a weed especially in wheat

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology 1

Noun

chess (usually uncountable, plural chesses)

A board game for two players with each beginning with sixteen chess pieces moving according to fixed rules across a chessboard with the objective to checkmate the opposing king.

Etymology 2

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

Noun

chess (plural chesses)

(now chiefly, US) Any of several species of grass in the genus Bromus, generally considered weeds.

Etymology 3

Noun

chess (plural chesses)

(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.

Anagrams

• hESCs

Etymology

Proper noun

Chess

A surname.

A river in Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire, England, which joins the Colne at Rickmansworth.

Anagrams

• hESCs

Source: Wiktionary


Chess, n. Etym: [OE. ches, F. échecs, prop. pl. of échec check. See 1st Check.]

Definition: A game played on a chessboard, by two persons, with two differently colored sets of men, sixteen in each set. Each player has a king, a queen, two bishops, two knights, two castles or rooks, and eight pawns.

Chess, n. (Bot.)

Definition: A species of brome grass (Bromus secalinus) which is a troublesome weed in wheat flelds, and is often erroneously regarded as degenerate or changed wheat; it bears a very slight resemblance to oats, and if reaped and ground up with wheat, so as to be used for food, is said to produce narcotic effects; -- called also cheat and Willard's bromus. [U. S.]

Note: Other species of brome grass are called upright chess, soft chess, etc.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

2 May 2025

MINESHAFT

(noun) excavation consisting of a vertical or sloping passageway for finding or mining ore or for ventilating a mine


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Coffee Trivia

An article published in Harvard Men’s Health Watch in 2012 shows heavy coffee drinkers live longer. The researchers examined data from 400,000 people and found out that men who drank six or more coffee cups per day had a 10% lower death rate.

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