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check

check or cheque, bill of exchange (see draft) drawn upon a bank or trust company or broker connected with a clearinghouse (see clearing). Upon presentation of a check, the bank or other drawee pays cash to the bearer or to a specified person. Payment is made from those funds of the maker or drawer that are in a primary demand deposit account (checking account) with the drawee. The check is intended for prompt presentation, rather than for use as a continuing currency. When the check is presented, the drawee pays the designated sum to the holder and cancels the check, which is then returned to the drawer as his receipt. To prevent fraud, checks are usually of tinted paper and are filled in with ink; the figures may be punched out of the paper or embossed. Many checks also have identifying code numbers that have been printed with magnetically active ink. The numbers enable banks to clear checks mechanically and thereby speed up operations. Whether or not the check will be paid by the bank depends upon its recognition of the drawer's signature and upon the bank's confidence in the person presenting the check for payment. A bank becomes primarily liable for payment only when it “certifies” on a check that the necessary funds are in the bank to the credit of the drawer. However, a bank is usually responsible to its depositor for paying forged checks. All local checks accepted by a bank are turned over daily to a clearinghouse, which cancels checks due from and to all banks of a given neighborhood, the balances alone being paid in cash. Banks settle out-of-town checking claims by means of entries made in the books of the appropriate Federal Reserve banks. Checks were probably used in Italy in the 15th cent. and in Holland in the 16th, from where their use spread to England and the American colonies in the 17th cent. Their rise to first place as a medium of exchange in industrialized nations took place in the 19th cent., their importance varying with differences in banking facilities, the density of population, and commercial activity. About 90% of all transactions in the United States are said to be effected by checks.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia™ Copyright © 2022, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Check

 

a monetary document of a standard form wherein the person writing the check orders the issuing agency to pay the indicated sum to the bearer; a type of security.

In the USSR, checks are written on blank forms, as prescribed by the State Bank of the USSR, in accordance with the statute on checks ratified on Nov. 6, 1929, by the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR (Collected Laws of the USSR, 1929, no. 73, art. 697). Every check must bear such information as the date and place of issue, the name of the payer, and the account from which payment is to be made. Checks are valid for a period of ten days, not counting the day of issue. In the USSR, only a credit agency (usually a bank) may cash a check, which must always be fully covered by the amount available in the account (either in cash or in the form of a credit account). A bank’s acceptance of a check means that the bank agrees to pay the amount of the check within the stated time limit.

Checks circulating in the economy of the USSR may be payable in cash, or they may be used for noncash transactions between organizations in settling accounts for goods received, services rendered, or work performed. This second category is made up of several types of checks—namely, bank-accepted checks, which are used by the budgetary organizations to settle local, or intracity, accounts for goods and services; checks without bank acceptance, which are used to settle local accounts for goods and services and, in addition, are used by financial bodies for reimbursement of budget revenues; and checks from either limited or unlimited checkbooks, which are used to settle both local and nonlocal accounts for goods and services (particularly the accounts of transport and communication enterprises). Checks are also used in relations involving citizens; for example, payments for municipal services may be made out of depositors’ current accounts in the form of noncash transactions.

The use of checks in the system of international payments is governed by various regulations—specifically, those formulated by the Geneva convention of 1931 on uniform laws for checks; the English Bills of Exchange Act of 1882, which is applied throughout the Commonwealth and in various other countries, such as the USA, Israel, and the Philippines; and the provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code of 1962, which is in effect in the United States and in a number of Latin American countries. The USSR is not a signatory to international checking agreements.

Check

 

in land reclamation, a carefully flattened section of field bounded by earth dams, intended for growing rice by the flooding method (seeSURFACE WATERING). A check is 1–4 hectares in area; a large check is 12–16 hectares in area.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

check

[chek]
(computer science)
A test which is necessary to detect a mistake in computer programming or a computer malfunction.
(engineering)
A device attached to something in order to limit the movement, such as a door check.
(materials)
A lengthwise crack in a board.
(metallurgy)
A minute crack occurring in steel that has been cooled too quickly.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

check

check, 1
1. A small crack running parallel to the grain in wood and across the rings; usually caused by shrinkage during drying; in veneers, may improve the appearance.
2. A minute crack in steel which has been cooled too abruptly.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

check

i. To confirm, as in “check ETA (estimated time of arrival),” “check three greens,” etc.
ii. To examine a pilot for proficiency as in a check flight.
iii. To reduce the rate of descent as in check altitude.
iv. To check in; to report.
v. To carry out a programmed cockpit routine from entering the aircraft to takeoff—cockpit checks, pre-start-up checks, checks while taxiing, and checks before takeoff.
vi. To ascertain the serviceability of aircraft or equipment, as used in preflight checks, postflight checks, etc.
vii. To investigate aircraft for any malfunction as in “check … (equipment) for … unserviceability.”
An Illustrated Dictionary of Aviation Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

check

1. 
a. fabric with a pattern of squares or crossed lines
b. (as modifier): a check suit
2. Chess the state or position of a king under direct attack, from which it must be moved or protected by another piece
3. part of the action of a piano that arrests the backward motion of a hammer after it has struck a string and holds it until the key is released
4. a chip or counter used in some card and gambling games
5. Hunting a pause by the hounds in the pursuit of their quarry owing to loss of its scent
6. Angling a ratchet fitted to a fishing reel to check the free running of the line
7. Ice hockey the act of impeding an opponent with one's body or stick
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
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