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exchequer - 6 dictionary results

ex⋅cheq⋅uer

  [eks-chek-er, iks-chek-er]
Use exchequer in a Sentence
–noun
1. a treasury, as of a state or nation.
2. (in Great Britain)
a. (often initial capital letter) the governmental department in charge of the public revenues.
b. (formerly) an office administering the royal revenues and determining all cases affecting them.
c. (initial capital letter) Also called Court of Exchequer. an ancient common-law court of civil jurisdiction in which cases affecting the revenues of the crown were tried, now merged in the King's Bench Division of the High Court.
3. Informal. one's financial resources; funds: I'd love to go, but the exchequer is a bit low.
Origin:
1250–1300; ME escheker, eschequier < AF escheker, eschekier (OF eschequier) chessboard, counting table. See checker 1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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ex·cheq·uer   (ěks'chěk'ər, ĭks-chěk'ər)   
n.  
  1. Exchequer The British governmental department charged with the collection and management of the national revenue.
  2. Exchequer In Great Britain, the Court of Exchequer.
  3. A treasury, as of a nation or an organization.
  4. Financial resources; funds.

[Alteration of Middle English escheker, from Old French eschequier, counting table, chessboard, from eschec, check; see check.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Exchequer

Ex*cheq"uer\, n. [OE. escheker, OF. eichekier, fr. LL. scaccarium. See Checker, Chess, Check.]

1. One of the superior courts of law; -- so called from a checkered cloth, which covers, or formerly covered, the table. [Eng.]

Note: The exchequer was a court of law and equity. In the revenue department, it had jurisdiction over the proprietary rights of the crown against subjects; in the common law department, it administered justice in personal actions between subject and subject. A person proceeding against another in the revenue department was said to exchequer him. The judges of this court were one chief and four puisne barons, so styled. The Court of Exchequer Chamber sat as court of error in which the judgments of each of the superior courts of common law, in England, were subject to revision by the judges of the other two sitting collectively. Causes involving difficult questions of law were sometimes after argument, adjourned into this court from the other courts, for debate before judgment in the court below. Recent legislation in England (1880) has abolished the Court of Exchequer and the Court of Exchequer Chamber, as distinct tribunals, a single board of judiciary, the High Court of Justice, being established for the trial of all classes of civil cases. --Wharton.

2. The department of state having charge of the collection and management of the royal revenue. [Eng.] Hence, the treasury; and, colloquially, pecuniary possessions in general; as, the company's exchequer is low.

Barons of the exchequer. See under Baron.

Chancellor of the exchequer. See under Chancellor.

Exchequer bills or bonds (Eng.), bills of money, or promissory bills, issued from the exchequer by authority of Parliament; a species of paper currency emitted under the authority of the government, and bearing interest.

Exchequer

Ex*cheq"uer\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Exchequered; p. pr. & vb. n. Exchequering.] To institute a process against (any one) in the Court of Exchequer.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : exchequer
Spanish: Hacienda,
German: das Finanzamt,
Japanese: 大蔵省
More Translations »

exchequer 
c.1300, from Anglo-Fr. escheker "a chessboard," from M.L. scaccarium (see check). Its government financial sense began under the Norman kings of England and refers to a cloth divided in squares that covered a table on which accounts of revenue were reckoned with counters. Respelled with an -x- based on the mistaken belief that it was originally a L. ex- word.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Main Entry: ex·che·quer
Pronunciation: 'eks-"che-k&r, iks-'che-
Function: noun
Etymology: Anglo-French eschecker eschequ(i)er, from Old French eschequier royal treasury, reckoning board or cloth marked with squares, literally, chessboard, from eschec chess
1 cap : a royal office in medieval England at first responsible for the collection and management of the royal revenue and later for the adjudication of revenue cases
2 cap : a former superior court having law and equity jurisdiction in England and Wales over primarily revenue cases and now merged with the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice called also Court of the Exchequer
NOTE: The Exchequer was created in England by the Norman kings. In addition to being divided into a court of common law and a court of equity, at one point the Exchequer also had jurisdiction over all actions, except those involving real property, between two subjects of the Crown. In 1841, the Exchequer's equity jurisdiction, except over revenue cases, was transferred to the Court of Chancery, and in 1881 the Exchequer was merged into the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice.
3 often cap : the office in Great Britain and Northern Ireland responsible for the collection and care of the national revenue
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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